Quick Hostess Gifts + Giveaway Winners

Where has the day gone!? I am still not packed for my 6 am{thank you Mr. Frugal Sabbe} flight and I have to be out the door in an hour for my student's final presentations.

First up, here is a quick hostess gift I put together for some ladies who are throwing Baby Sabbe a party this Sunday. We actually have two showers this weekend in Tennessee! We feel very blessed. I can't wait to get to the sweet, sweet South.

Cookies in a jar! Here is the recipe. My jars were too small so I had to add a little nut and berry bag on the side. But I think it worked out ok.

And the giveaway winners are...

Susan- Handbag {I NEED YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS}

Peg Mayor- Ornaments

Liz Crowny- Stationary

Carlee- 1 yard of fabric

If you did not include your email in your comment, make sure to get that to me.

I will contact each of you shortly.

Thanks to everyone who entered. Have a very Merry Christmas!!

The Nursery {Chapter 1}

How in the world am I almost 25 weeks pregnant! When I get back from the holidays I am going to crack down on this whole nesting thing. I have a list a mile long of things I would like to get done before we become a party of 3. If I shoot high, I'm sure to get at least half accomplished right? First up, clean the junk out of the future baby's room. For those who asked yesterday, here is a quick sketch I have showing how the one room works as two, plus some preliminary ideas for how I will layout the furniture in the baby's room.

And because I need to see everything 3-dimensional before I can commit,

I went ahead and built one of these.

So the room is windowless and pretty tiny, but I know city babies who sleep in walk in closets, so I'm not too concerned about that. We are attempting to cover the ugly plumbing pipe with custom bookshelves, and you've seen how we are separating one room from the other with curtain panels. The big goal with that is to give the humongous baby stroller a hiding spot when it's not in use.

As far as finishes go, I do not really have a direction yet.

Although I am pretty smitten with these Paper Boy wallpapers.

But these seem to be a little more for big boys, so I've been looking at other wall graphics.

Then there is always old faithful.

If I were having a girl, I would totally be DIYing this Dwell pattern out of contact paper,

minus some of the details.

 decisions, decisions.

On a sad note, my glider came last week. Wrong color! Bad Target, bad Hiatt Furniture. Not good for a future mama who is trying to check things off her list. I sent it back and am considering canceling the order all together and getting the Rena Chair by Best at a local store. That way I can custom order the fabric.

Lastly, can someone give me the 411 on crib bumpers? Aesthetically, I want one, but I have read enough about them to make me terrified of them. BUT everyone seems to have one. What's the deal?

Before and After: DIY Closet

So the one thing Boston brownstones do not come with is storage. We have two coat closets, period. Mine is in the living room and Mr. Sabbe uses the one in our bedroom. As a result, we have gotten really creative with storage since moving up here. Our bed is on cinder blocks, ala college dorm days. Our suitcases are full of out of season clothes. We keep golf clubs in the trunk of the car. And we constantly purge. The "second bedroom", which I use as an office, is very oddly shaped. It's kind of like the number 8, without the holes cut out. When we found out I was pregnant we decided we could make the second bedroom into two rooms, an office and a baby nursery. The best part, we were going to section off the middle into one large (for Boston) closet.  I went to Home Depot and had two rods cut to fit. I also purchased 2 ceiling mounted curtain tracks.

 Please ignore the shelf mess. That's another project for another day.

Also please ignore the fact that I did not iron the curtains before I hung them. I am hoping while I am away over the holidays the wrinkles will miraculously fall out.

While I was at it, I also made another fabric shade with some fun Ikea fabric.

The unfortunate looking back side of this closet is going to be a fantastic baby nursery in 3 short months, fingers crossed.

Also, on a random note, can you tell my camera is on the fritz? It's driving me nuts. The last two images are so yellow and dark, bleh. Did you know that expensive camera lenses go bad? I had no idea. Apparently mine is "worn out" according to the camera store guy. Mr. Sabbe and I went to play with some new, wider angle, fancy lenses last week. Hopefully I've been good this year.

Neutral Nelly

I'm not one to shy away from color, but every now and then I have a project where sticking to a neutral palette just feels right. There is something fresh and calm feeling about each of these tonal spaces.

  How about the window behind the cabinet above? Pretty creative use of existing space.

 What about you? Do you crave color or are you a neutral nelly?

images Traditional Home

Weird Design Ad: Pool Pavers

Why is there a cougar-esk mermaid swimming in my backyard?

To entice you to purchase pool pavers of course.

Giveaway: Handbag Made By Yours Truly

I get a lot of emails, mainly from sweet friends at home, to see if I still make bags for the etsy shop I opened once upon a time ago. Sadly, since going out on my own last June, my crafting afternoons have been few and far in between. So for this last giveaway I thought it would be fun to sit down and make a bag. I'm also teaching a class this Saturday and I thought I could use a refresher. Two birds, one stone.

 This last giveaway is open to SabbeSpot subscribers only, just let me know how you subscribe in your comment below. Any reader format is fine.

Winners for all of the giveaways will be announced December 16th. Don't forget to check out the other great holiday giveaways.
And thank you again for reading along!

Makes Me Want to Learn How to Ride a Horse

Or design a space in my house that insinuates I know how to ride a horse.

Anyone else?

Giveaway: Ornament Sets from FilzFelt

Today's giveaway is sponsored by another local Boston company, FilzFelt, which was founded by two felt-loving designers, Kelly Smith and Traci Roloff. The name FilzFelt is a combination of the German word for felt (filz) and the English (felt). I met Traci last year at an industry party and then ran into the team again at last year's ICFF show. Their products are amazing.

One of my most favorite things FilzFelt offers is their ornament sets.

Adorable right?

This giveaway is for 5 sets (2 ornaments per set), your choice!

Make sure to check out their website and Facebook page.

This giveaway is open to everyone. Leave a comment below.

A winner will be selected December 16th.

A December Day Trip to NYC