Jonas turns ONE

I had to pop in to share Jonas' first birthday party. I hope you enjoy looking at the pictures as much as I did putting everything together! All photos by Mark William Photography.

Everything is Black and White

At three weeks we have intense focus on highly contrasting things, such as black and white images, painted stripes and wallpaper. I had no idea two big parts of our house I designed for a newborn baby!

There is a mirror on the reverse for when he gets older. Love this thing. It is starting to make Jonas cry less during diaper changes because he is so busy just staring at it, which is really cute because I just see his thoughts cranking.

 {circa 2009}

While the black and white striped wall is getting pretty tired at this point and a change would be nice, Jonas is in love with it! We will sit watching TV and he will peer over our shoulders staring deeply into it. 

{Empty built-in}

And I am also applauding my choice of a strong black and white graphic wallpaper for our family room built-in, because when Jonas and I are bouncing on the exercise ball, you guessed it, he is busy gazing at this wall. {The before and after built-in, featured on Design*Sponge}

Jonas' Nursery

Here it is, the big reveal of our little man's room. It was so fun to gather things for his small space and also a bit of a challenge since the room is so darn teeny. As you can see there isn't a theme but just an overall cheery feeling and lots of animal friends.

I hope he loves his room!

Any questions about sources, ask me and I will answer in the comments.

(But the big rug is from Urban Outfitters :) )

a ladies lunch baby shower

I feel so lucky to have such a sweet cousin who wanted to throw me a shower, any kind I wanted. Since we already had our big co-ed one, I thought something much smaller with just a few of the ladies I love the most would be a great way to celebrate baby Jonas. She threw the classiest luncheon ever. Take a peek!

The adorable banner greeted us as we walked inside.

The beautiful table settings. 

All the place cards had quotes related to babies and children. 

My sister in law set up a station for us to scrapbook Jonas' baby book. Everyone was in charge of creating a few pages like First Tooth, Nursery, Coming home from the hospital, First solid food and so on. All the pages were decorated so cute and uniquely so now whenever those moments happen, I just have to glue in the photos! Such an amazing time saver.

Beverages.

Peaches & Prosciutto. 

Our beautiful and colorful lunch. 

And lastly, one of my favorite presents: a homemade linen pillow from my Aunt Liana. 

It is sooo beautiful in person. I sure felt the love from everyone that day!

garlands galore!

I have been scouring Etsy for a cute garland to hang above the crib for some visual interest for Jonas and to fill up some bare wall. I know buntings and what not have been overdone but here are some that still feel fun and fresh to me. I have been entertaining the idea of making something myself out of paper pinwheels from the wedding, stay tuned!

Chinese Lanterns, Blue Ombre, Stars and Moons, Honeycomb, Neon and Neutral, Stars.

Hotel San Jose

For part of our trip we stayed at the amazingly awesome Hotel San Jose located in the heart of South Congress street. This place was basically walking distance to like 10 places on my list of places to go.

Minimalist but cute!

 The bed was actually super comfortable.

 The cutest bathrobes at a hotel I have ever seen.

 Wow, nice touch. There was also the lotion in the room. My belly thanks you, Hotel San Jose!

 Everything was designed to a T. A little overwhelming for this camera happy blogger.

The pretty grounds were always the perfect backdrop to my bump photos during the trip. Not pictured are the cute pool, bar and common lounge area. I've often noticed when a place is trendy as this, the customer service goes down. Not the case here, nobody was snobby or Mr. Cool Guy. Loved that.