Happy 1st Blog Anniversary to jRoxDesigns!

Can you believe it?  My little blog is a year old already!  Well technically it was last week but life has been a little bit crazy over here.  Thanks to all of your love and support I have been swamped with orders from my Etsy shop and branching out with my photography!  I just finished editing a photo session with two sweet kids who have a very special surprise to share with their Daddy and a couple more sessions that I am just dying to share with you guys soon!  By all the time I’ve been spending in the workshop too lately it looks like you guys are loving the new selection of chalkboard speech bubbles and wooden letters in the Etsy shop too!  Not to mention the half a dozen special infinity tattoo designs I am working on right now.  How cool is that?  You guys are absolutely the best!  So, I’m sorry I haven’t been around as much lately but I promise I have so many new fun things that I hope to get up here to share with you soon!  To celebrate today I thought I would let you take a stroll on back to all of my favorite posts over the last year.

One of my most popular posts is Emma Grace’s Photo Project which is one project I am so proud of.  For all the hours and time that I’ve spent editing photos and preparing each shoot it is by far my most rewarding project!

Emma Grace’s Nursery has been one of my favorite projects I have done in years.  I poured my heart and soul into creating that room from scratch and I can’t help but smile so big every time I walk in there.  You guys seemed to love the reveal too because I heard back from so many of you that you too were in love with her French Provencal Dresser makeover!  Guess what..if you sit tight I hopefully will have a couple new photos to share of some new custom-made furniture we created for her as well as some toddler friendly updates!

I still can’t believe how many views my post where I shared with you my journey to get my first tattoo has gotten!  You know what is crazy is when you are scrolling through your feed on Pintrest and there is your tattoo staring back at you that was pinned from people you have never met!  Or even crazier when your big sister calls to tell you your tattoo also showed up on her feed today pinned by one of her friends who had no idea it was mine!  Crazy!!!  Then when I actually decided to offer custom designs in my Etsy shop I never could image how big of a response I would get!  You guys are amazing!!

Who doesn’t love baking?  Because I sure do!  That’s why I loved being able to share with you some of my favorite pumpkin pie and irish cream cupcake recipes along with an amazing recipe to make your very own vanilla extract!  Don’t worry we will have plenty more where those came from!

Do you know where big wooden letters and bubbles come from?  I let you guys take a quick behind the scenes tour with me to see what goes into making some of my favorite products!

Speaking of sneak peeks…remember when I gave you a little glimpse into what I’m hiding in my camera bag, diaper bag, studio and workshop?  That was so much fun!

I love holiday crafts and this Valentine’s Day garland was so much fun!  I’m thinking of making garland that I can personalize to use for photo shoots!  Pregnancy announcements, save the date cards anyone?

After being sick of my old worn out kitchen rug I gave it a fun facelift with a bit of creativity with the help of some paint!

I celebrated Hyperemesis Gravidarum Awareness Day by sharing my own personal journey with HG.  It was by far my most difficult post to write but since I wrote about my story I have had several women who are suffering or have survived HG reach out to me.  Their stories of strength and encouragement made it worth finally telling my story.

I’ve been able to take my photography journey to a new level by booking several sessions this past month!  I absolutely love being behind the camera and being able to capture that one special moment in life that you can hold on to for forever.  I loved being able to share with you some amazing pictures that I took at a friend’s wedding.  That post along with the photos I shared from the very first wedding have also got a lot of love from you guys.  I can’t wait to show you some new photos soon!

Do you know what happens though when you end up with maybe a couple hundred…or more photos that you have taken over the last year?  Yepp, you get an awesome family yearbook printed!  I always share our book with friends and family who come over to the house and everyone is just amazed by how great it looks.  I’m still just amazed at how easy it was!  I can’t wait to make more!

If you don’t know already I absolutely LOVE graphic design.  So creating free printables to share with you all like the Holiday and Fall Bucket Lists was so much fun.  Looks like it’s time to create a new one for Summer soon!

What were your favorite posts?  What would you like to see more of?  I would love to hear from you guys!  Thank you for all the love and support over the past year you guys are amazing!!!

   

A Thankful Week and Celebrating Our 100th Post with a Top 10 Recap!!

I have had the best week full of wonderful blessings and making great memories with my family.  We had an amazing Thanksgiving and filled our bellies to the brim with all sorts of delicious goodies!  I did a bit of shopping last night with my sister and we had such a great time together.  While driving home listening to Christmas music in the wee hours of the morning  I couldn’t help but think about how lucky I truly am.  I have the most amazing family and friends that support me through everything I do.  I have a husband who adores me and two children that are perfect in every way.  I have a roof over my head and am blessed to have enough money in my pocket to buy a few new toys for my kids for Christmas.  I am so lucky to have the life that I have.  I just wanted to tell all of you, my wonderful readers how thankful I am for you.  I started this blog as a creative outlet and it has become so much more.  I have made so many new friends and learned so much along the way.  So today I wanted to share a big milestone for the blog…OUR 100th POST!  How exciting is that?  I thought we could all celebrate today by taking a look back at my most popular posts along with my personal favorites!

One of my most popular posts is Emma Grace’s Weekly Photo Project which is one project I am so proud of.  For all the hours and time that I’ve spent editing photos and preparing each shoot it is by far my most rewarding project!

Emma Grace’s Nursery reveal was also a very popular post including my personal favorite, the French Provencal Dresser makeover!

After being sick of my old worn out kitchen rug I gave it a fun facelift with a bit of creativity with the help of some paint!

An afternoon, a quart of chalkboard paint and waiting what seemed like forever and we have an awesome new space to jot notes and play tic-tac-toe!

My post about my journey to get my first tattoo has been my most viewed post and I received so much feedback I actually decided to offer custom designs in my Etsy shop!

I celebrated Hyperemesis Gravidarum Awareness Day by sharing my own personal journey with HG.  It was by far my most difficult post to write but since I wrote about my story I have had several women who are suffering or have survived HG reach out to me.  Their stories of strength and encouragement made it worth finally telling my story.

I have learned so much about photography over the past year and I was excited to share with you all some amazing pictures that I took at a friend’s wedding.  That post along with the photos I shared from the very first wedding I was asked to shoot are some of my most popular posts!

I know everyone loves a pallet makeover and we had a great time turning an old pallet into a vintage soda sign for hubby’s birthday!

Hungry?  We sure were when we made these AMAZING stuffed burgers filled with several cheeses, crisp bacon and sautéed onions!  YUMMY!

Our free Fall Bucket List printable was a big success!  For the rest of November I will be sharing with you how many things we were able to cross off!

I hope you have enjoyed my special 100th post recap of my favorite and most popular posts so far!  Thank you for all of your support along the way and don’t ever be afraid to leave a little comment for me.  I love hearing from you!  If you want to keep up with what I’m up to outside the blog stop by and follow me!

    

Personalize Your Dresser with Drawer Liners! :: Nursery Tuesday

Remember this beauty of a dresser??  Awhile back I shared with you how I completely gave this dresser a HUGE makeover for Emma Grace’s nursery.

Her dresser is still one of my favorite pieces in the room!  Yet every morning when I went into get out her clothes I was forced to look at these dull and unfinshed drawers.  They kind of bummed me out to be honest.  There is this beautiful dresser…then you open up the drawers and….blaahh!

Isn’t it kind of depressing?  I thought so too.  So a couple of weeks ago while I was out shopping I came across a super cute drawer liner from The Macbeth Collection for dirt cheap.  I’m talking a couple of bucks for two huge rolls.  It was chevron…it was gray…I just couldn’t say no!  I took that pretty little thing on home and measured out my drawers and got to work.  First things first I cleaned all of my drawers and vacuumed them out to make sure there wasn’t dust or anything else in my drawers that could get caught underneath the liner.

Then I measured the interior of my drawers, added about a 1/2″ on each side and then cut out six pieces, one for each drawer.  You can start adhering your liner from whichever end you would like but I found it easiest to start on the long side of my drawer.  Peel up just a couple of inches of the backing and place it as straight as you can across the back of the drawer.  It is okay to leave a bit of an overhang because you can cut it off later.

Press down a couple of inches along the the same edge.  It doesn’t matter exactly how much just so it will stay put for the moment.  If you realize that you are to far to one side or not straight just peel it up and reposition it again.  At this point it is best to try to get it as straight as you can and it will make the rest of the process easier.

Now slowly peel back the rest of the paper backing while making sure that you do not pull up the liner the that you have already pressed down.

Slowly start to smooth out the liner and work any air bubbles that you may have to the outside edges.

Next take a vinyl squeegee (a credit card will work great too!) and carefully push the edges of the liner into the side creases of the drawer.  It works well if you can push a little bit of the liner between the side and the base of the drawer pieces.  If not its okay and is not a really big deal.

When I cut vinyl I always try to make sure that I have the sharpest blade possible.  You can either switch out to a new blade or use a sharpener if you have one.  If you have a dull blade there is a chance that when you press down and pull back to cut your blade will not cut but just pull on the vinyl and it can tear.  Now carefully try to place the blade BETWEEN the side and the base of the drawer.  By doing this the edge of the liner is actually stuck between the two pieces and is less likely to get caught or torn on something later on.

Now SLOWLY start pulling off the excess strip that you just cut.

** Watch carefully while you pull to make sure you cut a CONTINUOUS straight line.  If for some reason you skipped cutting a part when you pull on the strip you can pull the rest of the liner and cause a tear!  (Trust me I learned the hard way!) **

Phew!  Now the hardest part is done.  Grab your squeegee again and press down on the edges once last to time to ensure good adhesion!

Take a step back and check out your hard work!  (Let’s be honest it wasn’t to hard was it?  Now that you’ve finished one drawer the rest will take no time at all!)

Now fill them up and enjoy a little bit of happiness every time you open your drawers!

That is before a crazy toddler comes in and flings everything out of the drawers so she can see the pretty paper!

Just warning you ahead of time! 🙂

Modern Cribs Go Clear :: Nursery Tuesday

It’s fun.  It’s unique.  It’s different.  It is one of the most unlikely materials of choice when designing a nursery…clear acrylic.  Some lovers of more traditional style furniture may say its cold and stark and has no room in a nursery but many furniture designers are fighting back with unique designs that are starting to appeal to all sorts of tastes.

Ubabub is one of those designers that has mixed the typically cold clear material with warm wood tones and soft lines to make a beautiful and unique crib.  I first stumbled on to  Ubabub through Lilly & Lolly awhile back and fell in love with their Pod Crib.  I think the main reason why I loved it so much was because I had never seen anything like it before.  With all the hype over crib bedding lately and whether or not to use bumpers I am loving the fact that with a crib like this you don’t need to worry about bumpers or skirts.  Without any slats there is no need to worry over little arms and legs getting stuck.  It’s beautiful by itself.  It doesn’t need anything else to take away from its design.  See all of those cute little shapes on the side?  They have been laser cut to give additional airflow.  Pretty cool huh?

Ubabub is now available in the US through a partnership with MDB and after showing at the ABC Kids Expo this year they are receiving a lot of press.  Their Nifty Clear Crib also features their unique clear sides but in a bit more of a traditional silhouette.  The shape kind of reminds me of the Oeuf Sparrow Crib.

 Nurseryworks took the typically conservative nursery furniture world by storm with the introduction of their Vetro all acrylic crib two years ago.  A crib made of 100% clear acrylic.  Now that is something no one has ever seen before.  Paired with the always fun Nook Pebble Mattress it looks sleek and fabulous!

This year at the ABC Show Nurseryworks unveiled that the Vetro crib will now be available in blue!

Apartment Therapy

It looks like the MDB family is taking a clean sweep with the clear crib fad with Babyletto’s addition of the a new finish to their popular Harlow crib.  If you are not fully committed to the clear revolution then you might want to look into the Harlow crib which will now only feature one side in clear while the other remaining three sides in the traditional wood.  It is quite an interesting concept!

Apartment Therapy

So what is your take?  Are loving the clear crib or is it just not your fave?

Personally…I’m loving it!

Where The Wild Things Are Nursery Mood Board :: Nursery Tuesday

In my fashion design classes in college we were always making mood boards and concept boards for not only our own collections but other designers collections that inspired us as well.  It was a way to take an idea, an intangible thought and make it into something you could see, something you could visualize into reality.  On our boards we put together not only garment sketches but colors, fabrics and textures that inspired us.  Once I graduated, I spent several years working at a baby boutique where everyday I enjoyed designing unique nurseries for expecting parents.  Together with our clients we would pick out every element of the room starting with the furniture, bedding, lighting, artwork and completing the space with accessories.  The other day I was reminded of how much I loved making moldboards and I thought it would be so much fun to mix in my passion for nursery design and bring you a new addition to Nursery Tuesdays…Nursery Mood Boards!  Are you excited?  Because I am!

I thought I would kick things off with sharing a nursery inspired by one of my favorite children’s books, “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak.  I’ve always loved this book and I feel like I have read it a million times as I’m sure most parents have!  The book’s illustrations are beautiful and help bring the story to life.  The mix of textures in the artwork and colors in the story are a great starting point to a unique nursery.  By mixing muted earthy tones and natural elements any nursery would become a  sweet retreat.

1. “Where The Wild Things Are” Nursery Print by Olive and Birch on Etsy  – 2. Sparrow Crib by Oeuf – 3. Braided Storage Collection by West Elm – 4. Birch Lamp by Stanton Home Furnishings  – 5. – Sparrow 3 Drawer Dresser by Oeuf – 6. Wild Things Crown by Oeuf – 7. Sparrow Nightstand by Oeuf – 8. “Where The Wild Things Are” Story Mobile by A Continual Lullaby on Etsy – 9. Personalized Story Blocks by Personalized Blocks on Etsy – 10. Luca Glider by Monte Design

Recommended Behr Premium Plus Paint Colors :

Golden Chalice (360D-5) and Moss Landing (410-D)