Decorating a baby room is a wonderful opportunity to create a carefree hideaway – a place of slumber and lullabies.

Baby Room Themes…
From Tropical Jungle to Noah’s Ark, Teddy Bears to Winnie the Pooh: There are many delightful baby room themes to choose from – any one will spark enthusiasm and generate exciting nursery decorating ideas.

But decorating the baby room can be daunting: There’s so much choice – nursery bedding sets, furnishings, nursery wall décor and accessories of all kinds! Also young children can soon outgrow even the most enchanting baby room themes.

Nursery Decor…
Co-ordinated nursery bedding sets and matching accessories can make easy work of decorating a baby room, ensuring nursery décor is effective and harmonious.

But mixing and matching presents the opportunity for more imaginative nursery decorating ideas – and it’s fun! The key to success with ‘mix and match’ nursery décor is to select elements – baby nursery pictures, fabrics and accessories – that share color and pattern elements.

Basing nursery décor on neutral wall and floor coverings enables endless variations: Keeping baby room decorating ideas flexible makes it easy to adapt to a young child’s developing interests.

By changing just the accessories – nursery bedding sets, pictures and rugs – different nursery decorating ideas can be developed without all the upheaval of a major redecorating project. For a while, at least, baby room themes can grow with your child!

Color Schemes…
Young children love bright primary colors but large areas can be overwhelming. Decorating the baby room with a subtle, calm color scheme is usually a better choice. Introducing warm colors – rose, peach or primrose – into your baby room decorating ideas will help create a feeling of coziness.

While decorating the baby room with the cool colors – aqua, mint or sky blue – can create a feeling of spaciousness. But it is probably best to keep ideas based on this color range for a room with a warm, sunny aspect.

Touches of bright primary colors bring extra interest and visual stimulation. Introducing just small amounts with baby nursery pictures, nursery bedding sets, toys and accessories can transform a room. These are the finishing touches that can bring nursery décor alive!

Nursery Wall Decor…
From a series of framed art prints to big cheerful posters, a collage of birthday cards to giant stick-ups – nursery wall décor can create an interesting focus and highlight of color.

A special picture may provide inspiration for some great baby nursery ideas and the basis for a subtle color scheme.

Pictures can be used to develop baby room themes, giving them added dimension: Baby nursery pictures of animals can extend a Tropical Jungle theme – Paddington Bear pictures a Teddy Bear theme.

Look for baby nursery pictures that you find inspiring – they can be a valuable source for interesting nursery decorating ideas. But, best of all, good nursery wall décor will help to create a special place that excites whimsical fantasy and imaginative storytelling – the essence of a magical childhood!

About The Author
Writer and designer of elementary educational materials with particular interest in art education. Webmaster of www.NurseryPosters.com. suzanne@takingwing.co.uk

Taking Time to Smell the Flowers
The great thing about decorating your baby’s room with pictures is, not only will be it be an extra special reflection of your own creativity, but it can still keep with a theme of your choice. Say for instance, you want to design a little girl’s room in a garden theme with pretty flowers, butterflies and birds. All you’d need to do is grab your camera and step outside! And even if you don’t have a garden of your own, one of your neighbors may. And you can bet they wouldn’t mind obliging you by sharing the beauty of their own flowers and allowing you to snap a few shots of their landscape. You can also take a walk down to your local park or botanical garden.

Look up at the trees, down at the grass, and all around because what you may see as the same old ever day surroundings, will actually make for some beautiful pictures that can be framed, collaged, and used to decorate your baby’s room. And if you feel really ambitious, add a pretty color on the walls and maybe even think about painting a picket fence and garden gate. Hang some pretty curtains and you’ve created your very own indoor garden for your precious new daughter.

Animals, Animals Everywhere
Photos of animals are a great idea for boys or girls and provide you with a variety of choices as well. If you have pets at home, snap some pictures of them together, separately and with your baby’s brothers, sisters or cousins. They’ll make for adorable, personalized additions to decorate your baby’s room.

If you’re thinking about a jungle or forest theme, go down to the local zoo and take a slew of pictures of the lions, monkeys, exotic birds and bears. Then with just a little coordination, paint on the walls, and matching curtains you can easily create a fantastic animal theme with very little effort and expense.

Ideas for Customizing Your Pictures
One of the greatest things about this digital age we’re living in is that technology is always evolving, providing us with more and more ways to get creative. If you’ve got a digital camera that came with a docking station, it probably offers you the ability to print borderless photos which can help to create pictures that actually look like artwork. Or if you’re not comfortable using your printer’s software photo options, there are a lot of developers that can print those borderless pics for you, or scale them up or down to any size you want – choose from prints, posters or even wallscapes.

Whichever theme, photos or options you choose, the pride and satisfaction that comes from decorating your baby’s room with photos that you took yourself of family, friends, pets and more is the perfect way to personalize the space and create a place of happiness and abounding love for your little bundle of joy. So have fun, get creative and remember – the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

Wonderfully simple to do and oh so impressive!

You don’t need a $40 Easter egg decorating kit with pages of instructions to impress your family and guests this Easter – achieve sophisticated elegance with colors taken directly from nature. Simply decorated from a myriad of plants and flowers, you can create a beautiful range of natural colors and textures. Try this technique – it’s simple enough to do with young children.

Ingredients
Gather together eggs, an enamel or stainless steel pot, vinegar, cheesecloth, a rubber band, and plant materials such as onionskins, blueberries, pecan hulls, parsley, beets or dandelions.

Directions

1. To prepare the dye bath, fill a pot with two or three cups of plant material. Barely cover it with water (more plant material produces stronger colors.) Simmer for at least 30 minutes. Add water and stir as needed. The dyes can be made several days in advance and stored in the refrigerator. Strain and heat the dye before using it.
2. Use hard-boiled or blown out eggs. Carefully wash the eggs with soap and water. Allow them to dry. Wipe the eggs with vinegar.
3. To decorate the eggs, moisten small leaves and grasses, one at a time. Press them firmly against the egg. Hold them in place by wrapping the eggs in a six-inch square of cheesecloth or nylon pantyhose. Pull the cloth tight against the egg and secure it with a rubber band. Immerse the egg in a container of warm dye. Some dyes are stronger than others. The process may take only a few moments or several hours. Dyes derived from yellow onionskin, red onionskin, and blueberries all provide quick results.
4. Unwrap the eggs, drain, and let them dry upright.

What a magical and unpredictable process. Each lustrous egg is a unique surprise. Some of our favorites were the results of happy accidents. Enjoy discovering!

About The Author
Rondi Hillstrom Davis and Janell Sewall Oakes are the co-authors of the award-winning book Together: Creating Family Traditions. To check out their website that’s jam packed with family ideas, visit togetherparenting.com/.
info@togetherparenting.com

There she was in all her glory. Long white lab coat, frizzy hair, safety goggles — and a face smeared with the black ash of an experiment gone terrifically wrong. She was, at least on this Halloween night, Dr. Abby Normal. But for most of her life I had known her as Abigail, my daughter, and I had just taken some of the most legendary photos of her life.

These weren’t your garden-variety portraits. Not exactly Wal Mart studio stuff either. They were pictures taken of my kids in their natural element — being kids. That is the real photo opportunity of a holiday like Halloween.

For treasured images this Halloween, here are some quick tips to remember to get once-in-a-lifetime photos:

1. Stop Posing — Halloween is not a formal affair. So don’t bother with the wedding style shots. Engage the kids in the play associated with their costumes — and THEN shoot the pictures. Candids reveal the smiles much more than a “Hold still, honey!” moment.
2. Shoot Early, Shoot Often — Film is the cheapest part of photography. And in this digital age, there just isn’t a reason not to shoot several images. There are many good reasons for being trigger happy with the camera. First, if kids are use to you constantly firing away they won’t bother with the plastic smiles. But most importantly, shooting more simply increases your chances for great pictures. With Halloween pictures some of the best pictures are taken while the costuming is in process — don’t wait for the finished product in getting out the camera.
3. Get in Their Face — Halloween was made for pretend. Kids love to make faces, don costumes and assume a new personality. It is the ultimate form of exhibition. You just can’t let the opportunity pass. They WANT to be noticed. Most point-and-shoot variety cameras have wide-angle lenses. While this helps them to get sharp results and to work well in lower light, they tend to move the subject matter further away. Most have a minimum shooting distance of around three feet. Don’t be afraid to push that limit at Halloween. Get in close, have them make faces, ask them to talk to the camera. They will. It is, after all, Halloween.
4. Let Them Call the Shots — It’s their party. Ask them what kind of pictures they want. When my son was Harry Potter a few years back he wanted to jump off the roof on his Nimbus 2000. We had to reason with him a bit. But a little leap from a lawn chair to the grass did the trick and we got the shots of Harry in flight. Chances are your kids have an idea of the persona they are adopting. Let them call the shots to document the experience.
5. Use the set — Most of us decorate for the season. There could be haystacks, a bubbling pot, a roaring fireplace. Use these props, even if they don’t fit the theme of the costume. Down the road the memories you cherish will include all the fun that went into creating the holiday environment in your home.

Good candid pictures of children require active participation and putting them at ease. Halloween is the easiest of seasons in which to do this.
© 2004 by Jeff Westover

About The Author
Jeff Westover is a freelance writer and father of seven from Salt Lake City, Utah. He is the managing editor of My Merry Christmas.com, where folks have been making merry online for more than a decade. He writes about holidays, families, parenting, home schooling and photography for a variety of publications both online and offline. Please visit http://mymerrychristmas.com for more articles like this one.

When it comes to baby shower decorating ideas, the usual quandary most hostesses find themselves in is finding cute baby shower decorations that don’t cost a lot of money. You don’t want cheap-looking decorations, but on the other hand, you don’t want to have to pay an arm & a leg just to have nice-looking decorations.

Here is the #1 rule to follow when decorating for a baby shower: Simplicity Rules! Baby shower decorations are not the reason people come to a baby shower. Decorations are accents that enhance the theme and feel of the party. So, a few tastefully chosen baby shower decorations will give your party the perfect touch – not too much, not too little. The secret lies with choosing classy yet inexpensive baby shower decorating ideas.

Use these 3 baby shower decorating ideas to give your party a beautiful atmosphere, yet without spending a lot of money:

1. Use Flowers. When people see flowers, they see life, color, beauty and hope. Those qualities are exactly what we see in a baby as well. So flowers are the perfect decoration to complement a baby shower. You can match pink or blue flowers to the gender of the baby (or yellow for the “to be determined” baby). If you have a specific theme, like Winnie the Pooh for example, you could have red and orange flowers to match the Pooh theme.

Now, it is easy to spend $40 or more on a bouquet of flowers. But remember our rule: Simplicity! A simple, pretty bouquet of flowers in a vase would be perfect. You can buy a bouquet of flowers at most grocery stores starting at $6. A vase is another dollar or two. And voila! You have a fresh, vibrant feel for your baby shower! Beautiful AND inexpensive, the best of both worlds.

2. Display photos of the mom-to-be, dad-to-be, family and friends. People love to look at pictures. We all do! We all love to look at pictures of people, what they’re doing, what they’re wearing, where they’re at, & who they’re with. Pictures are fun, personal, and interesting. So, displaying a few pictures of the mom, dad, and their family & friends at the baby shower is a perfect decoration to give your party some personality and flavor. Pictures really personalize a baby shower and let everyone get to know the expectant mother a little better. They are also a fun ice-breaker and get everyone talking & laughing.

Another great thing about photos is: they cost almost nothing, so they make for an inexpensive baby shower decorating idea! Just ask the expectant mother for a few photos of herself, her husband, any pregnancy pictures she likes of herself, photos of her friends & family, plus any baby pictures she has of herself or her husband. Display them in a little photo album or better yet, mount the photos on several sheets of scrapbook paper and decorate the pages with stickers, die cuts, ribbons, quotes, poems, & other baby related embellishments. Either set the pages on easels (they cost about $1 at a craft store) or lay them flat on the gift table. They will be a big hit! Pictures never fail to add a fun & personal touch to a baby shower.

3. Buy Some Balloons. “But balloons are so common,” some may say. Yes, but balloons are the universal symbol for a party! Balloons could never be out-of-place or in-bad-taste at a baby shower. Plus they are inexpensive! A balloon bouquet starts at around $5 at most party stores. You could go with baby blue, light pink, yellow, or any other color that matches your theme. Tie the balloons to the gift table, the expectant mother’s chair, or scatter them throughout the party room. They look festive and remind your guests that this is a celebration!

Remember Simplicity. When it comes to baby shower decorating ideas, keeping it simple is key. Do not equate simple with cheap, poor quality, cheesy or tacky. Rather, these 3 simple, classy baby shower decorating ideas will add a simple & sweet feel to the baby shower that will give your party a fun, intimate, and memorable mood. AND you won’t have to break the bank to do it!

About the Author:
Find more of Ann’s baby shower articles and resources at http://www.plan-the-perfect-baby-shower.com.