Father's Day Fotos: A Little Snooze

above: When baby sleeps, the parent sleeps. By Designing Mom Aya

Father's Day Fotos: Pictures Do the Talking

Couldn't help putting up some more pics this weekend...
These great pics were by Eva at Green Rainbow Shop:
There are always so many stories to say about dads - either our own dads or our kids dads! Sometimes we just let the pictures do the writing for us.

Father's Day Fotos: Dirt Duo

Wow...what a week of wonderful Father's Day fotos! Thanks to everyone for sharing such special moments. I don't think there's anything more heart warming than seeing a dad grinning ear to ear with his family. If any of you have pics out there feel free to keep sending them and I'll try my best to post. And with that, I wish all of you the most wonderful weekend and Father's Day! We'll be back with awesome celebrity interior designer Annette Tatum next week!

above: this was a little while ago, but I love this pic b/c my little guy was just starting to stand up and take little steps and dad was right there to help guide the way.

Father's Day Fotos: Day at the Zoo

above: Designing Mom Jackie sent this foto of father and son beaming on the bus after a day at the zoo.

Father's Day Fotos: Daddy and Ando

above: Designing Mom April's beautiful father and son portrait photographed by Leon Borensztein

Father's Day Fotos: Hanging with Dad

above: Designing Mom Lori's "boys" hanging out.

Father's Day Fotos: Three's Company

above: Designing Mom Erin's lovable trio at play.

Father's Day Fotos: Pure Bliss

above: Reader Emma sent these adorable photos of dad and daughter sharing quiet moments together.

Last Halloween was the first time Emma went trick- or-treating and I think we ended up having more fun than she did. I took this picture of my two favorite people walking back home after collecting some yummy loot. It is just a fleeting moment but it captured my heart to see them walking hand in hand. Him so tall and she so little with her little feet pattering with excitement.

Then the last one is from early on in her life. She loved sleeping on his chest and it was just a lazy weekend afternoon. I was so pleased to see how my cat Momo even managed to squeeze in on the photo action that day. All three just basking in pure bliss.

Fathery's Day Fotos: Disney Days

above: Designing Mom Tori sent in this special pic of Dad and Kai in Disney

This is our favorite photo is from a recent trip to Disneyland. Our son NEVER wears hats, but wouldn't take his mouse ears of of his little head for the entire day. This shot is of him noticing his shadow and being mesmerized by his mouse ear silhouette while holding his favorite person on the planet's hand, his Daddy's. Branden said that this was one of the best days he has ever had with his son and so of course he will be getting this picture in a frame for father's day.

Father' Day Fotos: Daddy Pete

above: Designing Mom Kate's leading man, Pete with their adorable Oscar. They are happy to announce the birth of their baby boy, Charlie on May 21...Congrats Kate!

Father's Day Fotos: Nonchalant Dad

above: Designing Mom Carina of Nonchalant Mom just could not be without her "Nonchalant Dad!"

Father's Day Fotos: Captain Fun

above: Designing Mom Liberty's "Captain Fun" with family.

Here are some fun pics of my kids and their amazing daddy. I think my kids lucked out and got the best daddy in the world. We call him "Captain Fun" - because he works hard and plays hard, keeping us always on fun outings and adventures. He is the perfect combo of play and nurture... And his sensitive and talented eye captures a lot of our best memories as he shoots pics of his favorite subjects... He is our superhero... We are daddy's biggest fans!

Father's Day Fotos: Central Park

Father's Day is this weekend and I thought it'd be fun to show the men behind some of the Designing Moms the rest of this week. Many of us could probably call our partners "Designing Dads"-- their creativity, support and nurture for their family doesn't get highlighted nearly as much as it should. Let's celebrate them this week--if you have a great photo of your guy and little one, please send it in to share!


by Designing Mom Guissell of Earthy Beginnings

I was lucky enough to capture this moment back in March during our day in Central Park and have been saving it for a Father's Day print since. Some say a picture is worth a thousands words... to me it simply defines what a "Father is..." Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful dads out there!

Parent's Magazine: Craftiest Mom Contest

Ok all of you crafty mommas....Parents Magazine is holding a "Craftiest Mom" contest and wants you to submit photos of your favorite craft projects. It's time to share your "makes" with the world. The winner will appear in an upcoming issue of the magazine. Click here to submit!

ReMake: Office Chair

Don't know if you can relate, but whenever I see one of these chairs I get the cubicle-creepy-crawler feeling which doesn't bode well for production. Is your office in need of a revamp? Elizabeth from You Be Charmed sent in this great "remake" of her office chair!

Decorate: Nursery Wall Decals

by Designing Mom Aya at Chronicle Books


One of our nursery walls has been so painfully white and empty that I have been wanting to paint something or buy cute wall decals to fill it up. Turns out the wall decals are quite expensive! So I decided to give it a try to make one on my own. My sketches are definitely more ambitious than what I could actually produce, but Hayden still loves his new environment. I used brown drawing paper and origami papers to “draw” the illustration. I designed a product called Origami Craftpad so I have nearly unlimited supply of origami papers at home, which come in very handy when I am in a mood for easy crafting. The cutout papers are taped up with masking tape and craft tapes. I wasn’t sure how it’d turn out so I went with removable adhesive.

Do you think I should keep the rain drops? I like rain drops, but maybe the nursery should always be sunny...

Friday Fotos: Triple Threat

above: Congrats to Keira on graduating preschool!

above: these two cutie siblings, Mya and Oscar, belong to lucky mom Patricia Oro

above: a big congratulations to Designing Mom Kate on her newest arrival!

I love heading into the weekend with a triple threat of goodness. Congrats to all!
Have a Happy Friday and weekend everyone!

Shop: Cool Mom Picks

The 2010 Father's Day Gift Guide at Cool Mom Picks is out. If you're looking for some great Dad gifts and ideas check it out (including Designing Mom Jackie's Hand Print project!).

Remake: Tank to Tank Dress

Melissa of Brown Bobbin sent in this great "remake" of her daughter's old tank. What a clever way to upcycle old clothing and extend their life. For the full tutorial click here. Thanks for sharing Melissa!

Decorate: First Birthday Party

There are those who are organized enough to plan months in advance for their baby's first birthday. I am not one of them. It might be that it I was in denial that a whole year had come and gone, but I'm pretty sure I was also dragging my feet at the thought of coming up with decorations, invites, favors... Last Halloween I had the graces of Designing Mom Shinmin who kicked my butt into gear to forgo a store bought Halloween costume and make one instead. Did I burn all my knuckles with a glue gun to make that thing? I sure did. But Shinmin was right...I look back and I'm glad I did it. And I knew I would want to do the same for his first birthday as well, just with better efficiency and ease!

To cut out cleaning our place, we decided to hold it at Sprout, a wonderful natural and organic children's boutique in the city where I go to ogle onesies. They have an intimate courtyard outside for the adults and a children's playroom inside. We couldn't have asked for a sunnier day to celebrate!

The pre-requisite was that everything had to be made with scissors, glue or tape and materials needed to be found at home or for cheap at the fabric store. A wall of crowns and wands (will post that up soon!), macaroon tower, tissue poms and a bedsheet banner were some of the "makes" for the party.

The invites were really easy to make. I used a photo taken by Beth Hurley and backed them with different papers I had stashed in my desk drawer.

This pale seafoam sheet served as the color theme for the party. I used old fabrics and papers to cut out the letters. I made the tissue poms from a Martha Stewart tutorial.

Ahhh...the half naked macaroon tower! Never eyeball how many macaroons fit around a cone because I sorely miscalculated by at least half! Still, the guests loved sampling all of the yummy flavors like earl grey, rose, pistachio and madasgascar from Paulette. If you want to make your own, just purchase a styrofoam cone and glue or pin wax paper around it. I was going to use frosting to adhere them but read online that toothpicks were a better choice. The photo is cut off, but I glued glitter letters and made a green polka dotted pennant to stick onto the tower.
Other touches at the party that were also really easy to make: bubbles wrapped in the matching paper and fabrics, tin noisemakers that had cute retro patterns on them and little goodie bags with the same glitter letters glued to them.