Let’s see, does it begin with the super warm owner and designer Katy Mimari? You must know that we get hundreds of emails a day here at Project Nursery and for obvious reasons, Katy’s passion about her designs and products came pouring out of her kind notes. Like most successful mom based businesses, her company evolved from a need to create something better and more unique for her first child. It all started with a couple of diaper bags and a now classic line of crib bedding. Katy’s work welcomes bold colors and busy patterns inspiring parents to create nurseries their kids can grow with.

Or maybe it’s because Katy’s crib bumpers are AMAZING! I have a tendancy to splurge on crib sets. It’s just my thing. I am constantly in search of a solid, squared off bumper that lasts – one that won’t get saggy. It’s unfortunate that many do not pass my test or the weight of my 90th percentile children who enjoy crushing bumpers like big foot.  So here’s why I am so utterly impressed: The Caden Lane bumper comes in four separate parts. If your looking to eventually transition your convertible crib into a toddler bed, you can leave up three of the bumpers to maintain the set’s good looks. Each bumper cover zips off for easy cleaning. And lastly, the ties are made out of thick grosgrain ribbon. It’s doesn’t get all “wrinkly” after the wash and it is generous enough to wrap around the thick corners of a sleigh crib.

And we can’t forget to mention that Katy’s blankets, bibs and towels are super PLUSH. Most accessories come double sided and include a soft velour. So when your debating if a simple set of burp cloths are nice enough to send to your friend’s new baby, these are.

Now on to the prizes!  Caden Lane just launched their new “Boutique Collection” to hit stores this September and they are generously giving away a huge prize to one lucky winner who helps spread the word! The winner will receive one prize of their choice:

$1,000 gift card on southwest airlines

or a $2,000 shopping spree at www.NurseryCouture.com

or a $3,000 donation to your favorite charity!

Enter by blogging, tweeting, commenting, donating, etc.  about our new friends at Caden Lane and email them directly to have your entry accounted for. Contest rules and the complete entry details can be found HERE. Contest ends on midnight, CST, August 31, 2010.

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About The Author: Melisa resides in Los Angeles, CA. Mom to two little active boys Austin & Chase and partner in Little Apple Design, a children's interior design firm specializing in e-design inspiration boards.

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What better way to celebrate an airplane enthusiast than with airplanes?  From the packaging to her model glider, nothing quite says “First Class” like this one of a kind party invitation. Brenna even went as far as painting the interior of the box so that it looked like a runway and customized it by adding the birthday boy’s age.

Brenna brewed up a few different options for her daughter Ella’s High Tea birthday party. Ella’s guests drank to her first birthday with stitched lavender tea bags included in the invitation. The tea drinking party people raved about the attention to detail, the fragrant leaves and the lush texture of the invitations.

These wrapped canvases were given to each guest as a favor in a Woodland Themed Party. She garnished the wax brown bags with twigs, pistachio colored yarn, and whimsical mushroom beads. Brenna liked the idea of sending the children home with a gift they could reuse. Parents were especially appreciative for the lack of sugar-filled loot bags!

Thanks for letting us share your incredible work Brenna. You can now catch Brenna on design*sponge once a month featuring DIY paper art. We told you she was good!

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About The Author:
An avid crafter with a love for the media, Adrienne is based in Los Angeles, CA. When she's not on camera or tweeting, Adrienne is creating beautiful and stylish handmade jewelry for her etsy shop.

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For children red is an easy add-on color for room décor.  Childlike and fun, red is a safe addition for creating an uninhibited comfortable room that allows the child to be the star. The purity and boldness of red are similar to the traits of a child.  Whether adding just a little or creating a special splash…red adds the “pop” to any room in the house.

Nautical themes are always a fun way to add color. “Sailor” red and “fire” engine red are the perfect hues  to pick up for a  splash of color to your child’s room. I like to take elements from a theme and then mix them up to create a new updated look.

Boldly experimenting with touches of red can create eclectic mixes in a room. Have childlike fun with red. Color your room red and create your own new rainbow.

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About The Author:
Celebrity interior designer & author, Annette has been designing for over 15 years. She is the creator of the home decor lines, House and Little House, as well as the newly launched Annette Tatum Collection.

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A new mommy recently contacted me looking for a custom birth announcement design. She sent along a photo of her gorgeous nursery and I nearly fell off of my chair. It was a nursery I had swooned over many times here on Project Nursery! Fellow contributor, Little Crown Interiors designed this beautiful pink & navy vintage glam baby room. I love the custom wall monogram and the hot pink & silver damask wallpaper! I was thrilled to work on the custom announcement design! I pulled the styles and colors from the room and the customer was elated with the coordinating design!

I’m quite sure this is my favorite nursery EVER!

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About The Author:
Kim is a mother of two living in the Phoenix, AZ area. She has a knack for crafting paper goods and is known for her perfect party details. Learn all about Kim at The TomKat Studio.

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The downside is that I don’t get to enjoy my desk because I currently live 3,000 miles away from my Maryland Nana! Though I highly recommend passing on some of your favorite furniture, here is a wonderful option for gifting slightly more portable keepsakes…

Paloma’s Nest creates custom heirlooms to be cherished for generations. Their custom baby and family keepsakes make for sweet and delicate ornaments but most of all, newborn gifts. Artist Caroline Colom Vasquez crafts each piece made to order with your choice of names and dates. And in the spirit of true artistry, every Paloma’s Nest piece – no matter the material – is hand cut, freeform, with no pattern, and every single tiny letter is hand stamped, one by one. In addition, Caroline’s studio is powered 100% by renewable wind energy and wrapped in upcycled or recycled materials sure to impress the ones you love.

We’re smitten with the sweet baby plaque. Do you have a Paloma’s Nest favorite?

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About The Author:
An avid crafter with a love for the media, Adrienne is based in Los Angeles, CA. When she's not on camera or tweeting, Adrienne is creating beautiful and stylish handmade jewelry for her etsy shop.

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Modern Nursery Design was created with customization and simple designs in mind. The affordable prints and canvas artwork can be hung individually or in groups and the collections can be mixed and matched to create the right design and color scheme for any room. Currently Modern Nursery Design has over 70 different types of artwork to browse, three framing options, and an assortment of color combinations. The designs can hang as they are or be personalized with name or initial.

WIN IT! Project Nursery is giving away one $100 Gift Certificate towards any artwork on MND. Visit Modern Nursery Design and let us know what designs you would hang in your child’s room. Contest ends Friday July 30th at 11:59 PST.

Exclusive PN Discount: Modern Nursery Design is offering a 15% discount to all Project Nursery readers. Just enter code “PROJECTNURSERY” at checkout. Discount expires on 8/15/2010.

EXTRA ENTRIES
1. Become a fan of Project Nursery on Facebook  and comment.
2. Follow Project Nursery on Twitter,  tweet about it and comment.
3. Subscribe or let us know you are a subscriber with a comment.
4. Post on our Forum and comment.
5. Blog it and comment.

*Please comment separately for each on this post.

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About The Author:
Pam lives in San Francisco, CA and is expecting baby number three later this year. She is partner in Little Apple Design, a children's interior design firm specializing in e-design inspiration boards.

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This Modern Nesting Nursery was designed around an incredible Anthropologie rug. The designer opted for this modern color choice in lieu of powder pink.

I call dibs on Sloan’s Nursery when Sloan is out of town! If you’ve read my posts before you know I’m a fan of vintage. Sloan’s orange glider and hodge podge frame collection make this room a gem. Let’s not overlook the designer’s fantastic choice to mismatch bedding.

What are your thoughts? Don’t forget to share your comments with the nursery owners and rate these rooms. Are they 5 elephant-worthy?

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About The Author:
An avid crafter with a love for the media, Adrienne is based in Los Angeles, CA. When she's not on camera or tweeting, Adrienne is creating beautiful and stylish handmade jewelry for her etsy shop.

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These papier mache busts available at Anthropologie are made by Haitians to honor their African heritage.  They are made from recycled bags and books.  See by buying these you are helping support a country and are saving the environment.  Animals available on-line include giraffe, rhino, zebra & gazelle.

Another papier mache option comes from overseas by a company called Rice.  This stags head shown in turquoise is also available in red and purple.  It is an instant focal piece in a room and would be a great inspirational piece.

For a more neutral toned room (these could actually go anywhere in the house), I really like these carved wood deer heads by Roost from Uma.  They are pricey but look very elegant and subdued. As an added bonus you can hand hats on it.

This laser cut rhino cardboard also from Uma is another fun interpretation of an animal trophy.  It is also available in a buffalo pattern which could be cute for a cowboy room.

The Texan in me is coming out again by showing you this stuffed longhorn option.  Really this is a cute stuffed animal head for a playful cowboy room or for a die hard UT fan.  Big Game Trophies has a large assortment of about any game animal you can think of in stuffed animal form. This hand made deer head by Tamar Mogendorff from Brooklyn is pretty fabulous and is actually a one-of-a-kind piece of artwork.  She uses vintage pieces of linen, embroidery, tweed, burlap, and even newspaper to create rustic-looking patchwork treasures.  These pieces are not made to look perfect, they are supposed to have rough edges.  The character is fabulous!  Lillea Shop has the best selection of her works for sale on-line.

Last but not least, some teddy bear trophies!  Available at a wonderful store in San Francisco called Paxton Gate.  (Introduced to me by this post by Remodelista) Here is a photo below of the whole collection on the wall in their store from the Remodelista article. Creepily adorable actually!

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About The Author: Andrika lives in Manhattan Beach, CA and is a mother, interior designer, and editor of Nursery Notations, a blog devoted to helping moms and designers find distinctive items for children and inspiration for their rooms.

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Pick a Color – Any Color! Don’t feel confined by green and yellow (although those are definitely lovely colors for a gender neutral nursery).  Not long ago, we were asked for a aqua, brown and orange gender neutral nursery, and while those colors have historically been reserved for boy’s rooms, we found that this nursery design functioned perfectly for a girl’s room too (we’re still waiting for completed photos – and to find out whether a boy or girl is sleeping in this nursery).

Here’s another example of a very unique gender neutral nursery color scheme that we recently did for an adventurous client in New York City!

Pattern-Schmattern. Don’t be afraid of florals!  Historically feminine, we’ve found that there are tons of great ways to include floral patterns in a gender neutral nursery.  If the pattern is the right color, it can definitely be made to work.  Here’s a great example of a nursery design we’re completing for another one of our clients.  This nursery design features floral patterns throughout the room in the bedding and all of the custom textiles.

There’s Nothing Wrong With A Theme! While it seems that “theme” rooms don’t have the popularity they once had, we promise that you can feel comfortable creating a theme room.  Particularly in the case of a gender neutral nursery, consider an animal, alphabet or nature theme.

Not So Neutral… With each post that we create for Project Nursery, we try to find a way to help readers remember what a special place a nursery really is.  So, here’s a little “Nursery Culture” tip for you…  Be sure to create a space in the nursery design for a specific item you will add once you know the baby’s name and gender.  Make it something really special – something to remind you of the anticipation you had for all those months – wondering whether your baby was a boy or girl.  Make it something that reminds you of how happy you were when you first found out which it was…  As long as the item speaks to you, it can really be anything: from personalized artwork…

Special Delivery - Girl, by Oopsy Daisy

Special Delivery - Boy, by Oopsy Daisy

… to a beautiful display of the baby’s name on the wall…

Monogram by Wee Monograms

Monogram by Wee Monograms

…or a fun, personalized toy.

Name Train by Vibrant Trains (Etsy)

While working on your nursery design, find it and bookmark it so you can easily purchase it once your bundle of joy arrives.

That’s it for this week – however, we’ll be sharing a video of one of the completed nurseries above in the coming weeks.  Have a preference as to which one of the designs you would like to see?  Have you created a gender neutral nursery and have a tip to share?  Please share your thoughts with the Project Nursery community by posting your comments now!

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About The Authors:
Naomi and Gerri are specialists in juvenile interior design. Based in Southern CA, the pair has designed countless nurseries and kids rooms nationwide through their company, Little Crown Interiors.

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