Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours!

What we didn’t realize right away was that it was only a matter of a week or two, until Eli started noticing everything around him that we didn’t.  He loves crawling into all the nooks and crannies where he shouldn’t go.  Underneath the chairs to get to the carbon monoxide detector that we thought was hidden?  No problem for Eli.  Finding all the cable cords tucked under a blanket, the computer cord dangling from the laptop charging on the couch?  Easy peasy for him.  I’ve even had to start vacuuming and scrubbing the floors a lot more than I’m used to because this kid is everywhere.

So, what’s the solution?  Well, we’ve begun to move things around a bit hoping to just keep some temptations out of grasp.  The carbon monoxide detector was moved to higher ground in an outlet underneath the kitchen cabinets, we’ve moved baskets that housed books and other items off of the floor so he can no longer pull up on those and have books crashing down on him.  The coffee table tray with drink coasters and decorative items will need to be moved any day now and there’s a whole list of other things to do.  My goal this week is to try to now find a place to put all these items that need to be temporarily moved.  Storage is a whole other story in this house!

Caught in the act

Anyone else childproofing their home?  What am I missing?  Any great solutions for how to make childproofing efforts prettier or is it just a temporary ugly phase we parents all have to live through at some point?

The second reason is just lack of inspiration, really.  For some reason, I just don’t have a ton of great design ideas floating around my head like I used to.  I’m pretty sure this has to do with the lack of sleep that comes with new motherhood and just my general absence from the design world right now.  I haven’t been able to focus on the business or getting new clients at all since Eli was born.  And frankly, that’s okay with me.  Yes, I would love new clients and jobs to work on, but maybe now is just not the time.  My baby is only a baby for a short time.  I have this wonderful opportunity to be with him and I don’t want to take that for granted.  There is always the future for growing this business and getting more clients.  In the meantime, I’d love to work on small e-design projects that I can work on during the evenings when Eli is asleep.  So if anyone’s looking for some e-design…

(Here’s a recent design I worked on.  So much fun.  I love designing nurseries.)

The third thing is how I’m feeling about the direction/subject of this blog.  Originally I set out to have this be a blog about what inspired me in interior design and some projects I was working on around my house.  Eventually that led to the opening of my design business after graduation and the creation of my business website and this blog tied into it as a way to hopefully grow the business, gain clients and showcase some of my work.  Along the way I feel like I failed in that respect.  I really wasn’t able to showcase my design work since most of it was e-design where my clients are able to take as much time as they want to complete the project on their own according to their time frame and as budget allows once they receive my design (which is definitely the appeal of e-design for many clients).  So, it’s been pretty hard to get anything photographed since projects I worked on last year have still not been completed by the homeowners.  Projects around my own house slowed down significantly due to my pregnancy and no longer working as much, therefore, not having much of a budget to do things.

(Could you resist this cute face?)

All this to say, that my life and interests have changed a bit.  I’m now a mom and I still love design but when reading other blogs I find myself gravitating more towards ones that include all aspects of life.  A little bit of work, design, motherhood, pictures of kids and family, food and daily life stuff.  And that’s what I think I’d like to write about here.  I think I’ll be more inspired and motivated to write when I can write more about my life and all the things I’m interested in, instead of limiting myself to strictly interior design and struggling to come up with material on a daily basis.

So….I really hope changing my focus to something a bit more well-rounded will really help to improve this blog, instead of just leaving it stagnant like I’ve been doing.  I don’t want to let down those of you that have been reading and I want to make this a place people want to keep visiting and that I want to keep writing for.  Thank you to all you that have read so far and I hope you will continue to do so and that you will enjoy it even more so that ever before.  :)

**On an exciting note, if any of you are subscribers to American Baby magazine (a sister publication to Parent Magazine and it’s free!), my design of Eli’s nursery will be featured in the August issue!  I’m so excited to see it and I will make sure to get it scanned in and posted here for those of you that don’t subscribe.

]]> http://www.refreshdesignstudio.com/blog/2011/05/paper-lemon-photography-photos/feed/ 1 http://www.refreshdesignstudio.com/blog/2011/02/introducing/ http://www.refreshdesignstudio.com/blog/2011/02/introducing/#comments Sun, 13 Feb 2011 03:43:23 +0000 Katie http://www.refreshdesignstudio.com/blog/?p=1099

Eli  Kerry

Born: January 28th, 2011 at 11:16am

Weighing: 8lbs 12oz

Measuring: 22.5 inches long2 Weeks Old

We are enjoying our little bundle and getting used to this new way of life with a baby.  Everyone is happy and healthy and having fun with this new chapter in our lives.

]]> http://www.refreshdesignstudio.com/blog/2011/02/introducing/feed/ 0 http://www.refreshdesignstudio.com/blog/2011/02/technical-difficulties-and-happy-news/ http://www.refreshdesignstudio.com/blog/2011/02/technical-difficulties-and-happy-news/#comments Tue, 08 Feb 2011 21:15:13 +0000 Katie http://www.refreshdesignstudio.com/blog/?p=1096 Hey everybody!

So sorry for all the problems we’ve been having on the site.  It’s all been updated now and should be working!

Another reason for the lack of posts has been that our baby was born on January 28th!  We’ve been recovering and spending some quality time with our little one which has been so fun and also utterly exhausting at the same time.

I will be doing my best to start posting more regularly again on here and I have some fun ideas for posts coming up.  I can’t guarantee that I will post everyday but my goal is at least once a week for now and gradually posting more and more as we get used to life with a little baby. 

Hope everyone is doing well.  Thanks for sticking with me during this new chapter and adjustment in our lives.

I loved all of her beautiful and creative details!

Instead of shower games we worked on crafting some alphabet letters for a wall I’m doing in the nursery.  So fun!

Just wanted to let you know that if you’re interested in reading the latest baby news around here, you can visit http://www.refreshdesignonline.com/babyblog/ for all the updated details on our growing baby.  I also added the link on my right sidebar so you can easily click on that to be redirected over there as well.  Thanks!

Thanks to all of you who have stuck around during this dry period on the blog.  I really appreciate all of my readers and am looking forward to posting more regularly again!  If any of you have some ideas of things you’d like to see coming up on the blog, I’d absolutely LOVE your input.  Please leave me a comment at the end of this post with any suggestions you may have about what you’d like to read about!

Oh, and here’s a pic to keep your curiosity satisfied on my growing bump

Hope everyone had a great fourth of July!  We spent the day at a BBQ with friends and a bonfire at night.  It was a fun and relaxing day and a great way to spend the holiday.

Image from Flickr

And now on to the CSN giveaway.  Thanks to all of you that participated this time around, I wish all of you could be winners.  Using random.org to generate the winner, Rachel won as comment #7!  Congratulations, Rachel!  You’ll be getting an email shortly about the gift certificate!

Hope everyone is enjoying their day off if they are lucky enough to have today off!