Manolo for the Home would like to offer up a big congrats to kt who is the winner — finally — of our vintage-print nursery cards giveaway! Stay tuned for more contests in the not-too-distant future!
I wanted to let everyone know that I’ll be announcing the winner of the recent contest a bit later today — things have been kind of nuts here (work / baby / blogs / etc.) and I’ve gotten a little behind. Sorry for the delay, and thank you for your patience!
Those of us with babies, who are expecting babies, or just have a baby-like sensibility when it comes to decorating have probably spent at least some time contemplating what exactly makes a beautiful nursery. Is it chic and modern nursery furniture? Adorable themes, like circus animals or life under the sea? Or is it the decorations themselves? I like to think you can do a lot with accent decor in the nursery, particularly seeing as how in five or seven or nine year’s time that bouncing baby is going to think of themselves as way too mature for cartoon representations of marine life.
What can you do, right? I suppose you can try to lean as much as possible toward timelessness by choosing nursery decor that isn’t too babyish. Think vintage drawings rather than modern cartoon characters. Right now I’m loving nursery cards from Traditional Toys — they’re perfect for baby’s room but classic enough to make it easy to find a place for them when Little Johnny and Jenny decide they’re just too grown up for that sort of thing.
The cards, which come ready to hang with coordinating organza ribbons feature the artwork of Jessie Willcox Smith, who enlarged the appreciation of children in American popular culture by her enormously sympathetic representations, Maud Humphrey, one of the most popular Victorian illustrators in America and an early suffragette, and Johnny Gruelle, creator of Raggedy Ann.
Like them? They could be yours! To win a set of these very pretty cards for your nursery (or hallway or bathroom or bedroom) leave a comment on this post describing either 1) the origins of your name and why your parents chose it or 2) the origins of your child’s name and why you chose it. On Monday, November 23 at noon EST, I’ll use the trusty random number generator to pick a winner. Good luck!
…Carla, who suggested we feature “more articles on how to use common household items for other things!” I e-mailed you, Carla, but if my correspondence was erroneously channeled into your spam box, get in touch with me at Never.teh.Bride@gmail.com as soon as you can.
Congrats! And enjoy!
FYI: You can win $250,000 to renovate your home in the Whole House Makeover Sweepstakes. I entered, though I’m not quite sure whether the contest has started as my current issue of House Beautiful implies the contest begins on Dec. 15. That said, the entry forms are up and working, so why not enter now?
Brides- and grooms-to-be love free stuff so much that I can’t imagine that home enthusiasts wouldn’t feel the same way.
Don’t forget to sign up with a catch-all e-mail address that differs from your usual addy to avoid massive amounts of spam. Good luck!
This is where I get all squee-ish and say things like, “OMG teh cuteness!” The gist of it is this: I get one (the girl one, probably) and The Beard gets one (likely the boy one), and we drink coffee all day and think about each other. At least I gather that’s what is supposed to happen, based on boldLOFT’s description.
More probable, however, is that we lose one half of the set, and he’s drinking out of the girl mug and I’m drinking out of the dollar store mug with “X for xylophone” on it. That’s all right by me!
