creative – Snapshots & My Thoughts by Ailee Petrovic

Décor October 23, 2014

Dream Master Closet

Alas, the real dream room in any house: the master closet. When we renovated our house, we removed a door from one room, tore down two small closets, and shifted our master bathroom all for the sake of our closet. We have lots of built in shelves (even between our top and bottom hanging spaces), but no natural lighting. When we build our dream home in many years to come, I will definitely ask for a window. I love the closets below that have sun shining in. If you can’t get natural light, a statement chandelier shall do (yeah, so, we don’t have one of those either!).

The closets below are all unique and gorgeous. I would take any of them! My essentials include:

Lots of shelving with self-closing drawers
Massive, full length mirror
Central island (with fresh flowers, if you must) – this could even be Carrera marble, since it’s unlikely you’ll have anything to stain it in your closet!
Glass jewelry display and drawers
Handbag storage space
Pretty lamps and chandelier (or ideally, naturally lighting)
Lots of shoe racks
Individual hanging hooks between closet sections (helps with outfit planning!)
At least one comfy chair
Stylish rug or patterned carpet

Wouldn’t this be lovely? I know, I know. Keep on dreaming (says Sasha). What are your requirements for a dream closet?

PS Have you checked out my dream office space, laundry room, playroom, kitchen, master bedroom, and living room posts yet?

Décor October 16, 2014

Dream Home Office Spaces

I am sitting in our home office as I type this post, and while I love this little sanctuary room, there is quite a bit I would love to change… but that involves knocking down walls to create more natural light (cue Sasha rolling his eyes). I love a bright, clean, modern office – much like the dream laundry room, playroom, kitchen, master bedroom, and living room posts.

I’ve put together an assortment of my favorite home offices. I think that the essentials include:

Large white desk with lots of easily accessible storage space
A massive iMac (thank you, Sasha!)
White framed prints (with pops of gold and pink)
A bold, colorful rug
A shelf above the desk for above mentioned frames or books/knick-knacks
A modern, interestingly design office chair (we love ours from CB2!)
Foliage – whether it be a large ficus or small potted succulents, greenery is key
A unique lamp (my favorite is the Audrey Lamp from Lulu & Georgia)

Do you have a home office? If so, do you spend a lot of time there? What are your ‘essentials’?

Décor October 9, 2014

Dream Laundry Room

If you would have told me five years ago that I would one day lust over a laundry room, I would have thought you were absolutely insane. Now that we do one load per day for our sweet little one in our small laundry room, I get it. In our next house (or home addition… fingers crossed on this one!), I want a big laundry room with plenty of folding, hanging, storing and washing space. I’ve been saving lots of images of all white kitchens, then saw a gorgeous dark wood room and was almost swayed. I’m sharing my inspiration below! Which is your favorite? Do you dream of spacious, well organized laundry rooms too?

Ideal laundry room requirements:

Big, white farmhouse sink
Plenty of natural light
Large, interesting light fixtures
Lots of cabinets and shelving
Racks to hang clothing
Double washer and dryer (hey, a girl can dream!)
Subway white tiles for the floor or backsplash
Constant supply of gorgeous flowers or greenery
Comfortable seating (love the thought of a dual purposed room with desk space)

Baby October 1, 2014

Creative Gender Reveal Cards (+ Confetti)

Sasha and I decided against a gender reveal party, as we were scheduled to find out the baby’s gender while we were in Bali, and there was no way in the world I would wait two extra weeks to find out. We opened the email from my ob-gyn in our hotel room and literally squealed, then rolled around the bed, giggling with excitement. It was so sweet and intimate – I couldn’t imagine it any other way. We had told very few people that I was pregnant at that point (16 weeks), so decided to do a big bang reveal and tell people that I was pregnant and expecting a baby girl.

Recently, I’ve seen some very cute and creative gender reveal options that don’t involve cake and a big party, and I think we’ll use one for baby #2 (don’t get any crazy ideas, this won’t be for awhile).

My favorite announcements are featured below. Have you seen any other cute and creative ways to announce a baby’s gender?

Lauren Chism

Once again, Lauren Chism creates the cutest card. See other favorites here! I love the cute little envelope within an envelope – an extra level of secrecy. All of the confetti is so pretty too!

Baby September 5, 2014

Isla Loves: The Wedding Chicks (40% off Promo Code)

It may sound ridiculous to anyone who does not have kids or is not pregnant, but the first year monthly photos are a pretty big deal, and deciding how you will style and take them is something that takes a bit of consideration. Will you buy cute little stickers and put them on a pillow (like these: Lucy Darling Monthly Onesie Stickers) or on a plain onesie? Or will you style a photo using wooden blocks to spell out the months (like this cute photo)?

As you can see from the photos below, I decided to buy The Wedding Chicks’ Genny Monthly Onesies, and I’m so glad that I did. All twelve months have different cute fonts and you can select from a wide variety of colors. I cannot wait to put all 12 pictures next to each other to see how much she changed throughout her first year. The Wedding Chicks also have Ombre Monthly Onesies and Modern Monthly Onesies – I love them all.

I discovered The Wedding Chicks while planning our wedding a year and a half ago and immediately became addicted. I bought hankerchiefs for our flower girls and my dad, and recently bought Isla one after she was born to give her at her wedding. I am about to order Isla this onesie, as every Texas gal needs it!

I also love customizing totes and gift bags for engagement, wedding and birthday gifts. The prices are so reasonable, and it is such a nice touch to have a personalized present. Their selection of customizable baby bibs, onesies and shirts are so cute.

If you’re like me, you’ll want everything in the store, and fortunately, you can get it all for 40% off today (Friday, September 5) through next Friday, September 12. All you need to do is go to Shop.WeddingChicks.com, load up your shopping cart, and use promo code ‘SMTPromo‘ when checking out.

Have a great weekend and enjoy your shopping! If you have Instagram, I’d love if you followed my new blog account!

She has grown so much in the past two months! See Month 1 and Month 2