Throughout my pregnancy, we worked hard to create a safe and cozy space for our baby. We browsed Pinterest for hours, read the 

 by Simone Davies and Juanita Uzodike, painted, refurbished furniture, and hung materials. A few weeks before Ella arrived, we finished her nursery. In this blog post, I'm sharing the details of the nursery along with our reasons for some of those details (Links are found at the end.)

At home, we implement most of the Montessori philosophy. One of the foundational principles of Montessori philosophy is order.

In our baby’s surroundings, there needs to be a place for everything, and things needs to be in their place. The baby’s days and activities need to be predictable. We can help them by creating oorderly environments and developing routines and cues that will help them anticipate where they are or what comes next. We can make a place for everything — starting with a place for feeding, a place for sleeping, a place for physical care, and a place for movement and playing. 



To help our baby with order, we provided physical landmarks or points of reference in Ella’s nursery for physical care, sleep, and movement. (On a side note, landmarks can also be a song and scent). 

Where we provide physical care for Ella, there are 3 animals placed in black frames. These framed animals serve as a landmark for her changing area. We chose black frames because of babies' attraction towards high contrast objects. The height of them is not too far from the table because 0-3 month old babies can only see 8-12 inches.

Instead of picking a theme for the nursery, we focused on picking colors that would benefit our baby at an early age. We chose black and white for the main colors of the nursery because babies can see tones of black (blurry tones) and research has shown that looking at high contrast objects is beneficial towards a baby's cognitive development. These black dots serve as a landmark for her place of sleep. We decided to place 500 black irregular dots on the wall. We ordered a thousand, but we noticed quickly that applying a thousand dots would be too busy. So, we used five hundred of them instead. It ended up being the perfect amount, and it was actually a very therapeutic activity. Here is a 

To create a movement area in the nursery, we took off the closet doors and used that space for it. At almost 3 months old, the physical landmark for her movement area is her 

.  As she grows in the coming months, the mirror near the floor will be a landmark for this area. It is the Nissedal mirror from IKEA. When Ella starts to crawl, we will need to cover the corners with a soft material.

As of now the nursery does not match a complete Montessori style. We are considering swapping the crib with a floor bed. Since Ella is already rolling over, we are considering making room for a changing station on the floor. Having her up high makes me a little nervous even though we use the changing mat buckle. On the sides of the closet , Bennett plans to build a shelf for Ella’s activities (you can see the empty spaces in the photo above). At the appropriate time, we will add a bar in front of the mirror to offer her the opportunity to stand. When Ella is able to stand up, we will move the clothing rod lower for her to pick out a clothing item. When we make any of these changes, I’ll post updates over on my instagram along with a blog post. For now, you can see the full nursery in my 

 and find many of the details below(We swapped the brown chair with a different one. See below).

Montessori Landmarks in the Nursery

A cherished memory of mine from planning our wedding was picking out my flowers with my mom. I chose pink gerber daisies, white carnations, and waxed flowers. What I loved most about my bouquet was the cascade look. After we got married, I dried my flowers and placed them into jars. However, I always wanted to do something more with them.. Almost 5 years later, I decided to do just that.

If you have put preserving your flowers on hold like me or want to do something creative with them right after your big day, here are 5 ideas.

Even though I dried my flowers, I wanted the whole bouquet to be on display in a creative way. I sent Sirina Law a picture of my bouquet, and she did an amazing job on my hoop. The finished result is breathtaking! She is an amazing artist. Here is 

. Embroidered hoops make a lovely gift too!

If you are not like me and want to plan ahead to preserve your flowers, send your flowers to the 

 a day or two after your event. I love these custom resin bookends and arches. They are a beautiful addition to your styled shelves.

If you have dried some of your flowers, you can send them to 

 and she will create a stunning pressed necklace for you to wear.

If you want to keep your bouquet forever, this is worth the investment. After your wedding or special event, send your bouquet to the 

. I love how you can include Boutonnieres and any other details from your special day for no additional charges.

This is a great idea if you didn’t dry your flowers, but still want to do something special. A Chicago photographer and artist, 

 only needs a photo of your bouquet to create a dreamy framed watercolor painting. 

5 ways to preserve your wedding flowers

A few years ago I was introduced to CJLA, and I fell in love with their clothes instantly. You can mix & match all their pieces. If you love a good capsule wardrobe, they can hook you up with high quality capsule pieces.  Also, I'm a huge fan of supporting my country by purchasing products that are made here. A lot of CJLA's pieces are made in Los Angles which is amazing. If you don't know about this business, you need to do yourself a favor and check them out. You will not only be supporting an amazing business, but you will be joining an uplifting community too. 

Since I'm a CJLA girl living life in CJLA clothes, they asked me to share my most-loved Saturday spots in and near Milwaukee on their blog. If you live in Milwaukee or will be traveling there, you should definitely check out these spots.

Featured on the Carly Jean Los Angeles blog

I love everything about Fall especially pumpkins. In the Fall, you can find me eating pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin dip, pumpkin cookies, and many other delicious pumpkin foods. When my best friend Megan found out about baby Frazier, she immediately brought up the idea of doing a pumpkin themed shower. Megan worked with a wonderful group of ladies to plan an amazing and beautiful baby shower (Thank you ladies!!!) In this post, you can see and read about the Pumpkin themed décor, games/activities, and food. 

The only thing I assisted with was designing the invitation with Bennett. It was so much fun to do this with him. My sister Rachel watercolored the pumpkins and leaves for the invitation. I love how it turned out!

All the decorations were beautiful! My friend Rachel put together this amazing Little Pumpkin display. We used it as a photo backdrop for our photos with family and friends. 

My mother-in-law made these a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e boy and girl pumpkins. We ended up using them as props for our maternity photos the following day. 

 (I wore this to the baby shower and for maternity photos.) I absolutely love getting dresses from Pink Desert. 

These pumpkin succulents made a beautiful addition to the tables as well. Everything was SO beautiful! Each guest took a succulent pumpkin home. We encouraged them to take out the succulent and plant it in a small pot. 

I absolutely love this activity! I can’t wait to see all the notes written by our family and friends as we change all those late night diapers.

Ham. Prunes. Carrot. Squash. Kiwi Banana. Bennett closed his eyes, I fed him, and he guessed the baby food. He did extremely well! This game made us, and our guests laugh! If your husband is willing to eat baby food, it’s the perfect game for your baby shower.

 were a beautiful addition to our pumpkin themed shower.

The following activities were at our shower:

We have plans to put together all the advice and wishes for baby sheets in a book to keep forever. Maybe, I’ll include an update of how it turns out. (:

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Pumpkin-Napkins-Decorations-24-Pack/dp/B099KDBB55

The pumpkin flavored food items were Pumpkin Chili, Pumpkin Dip, Pumpkin pretzels, Pumpkin cookies, and Pumpkin brownies. Hot Apple Cider was the perfect drink to go along with all of these food items. They also placed out more food that wasn't pumpkin flavored. Everything was super delicious! 

My face hurt from smiling so much at the baby shower. This was my very first ever shower, so it was even more special. We are so excited for baby Frazier to meet everybody God has placed in our lives. 

Our Pumpkin Themed Baby Shower

Décor

Late Night Diaper Notes

Baby Shower Game

Paper activities

Food

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Montessori Landmarks in the Nursery

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Featured on the Carly Jean Los Angeles blog