Nursery Update

I added a print to Scarlett's nursery and wanted to share it here, so I took a couple of other pictures of the room as well. Check out this label to see other posts about the nursery. I know I still haven't shared the tree that I painted BUT it is painted and the white flowers are painted on as well. I didn't end up using a stencil bc that was just too time consuming/didn't turn out well, looks wise. I need to paint on the magenta flowers and I also plan on putting some 3-d elements on as well (depending on how they look when a couple are put up).

I saw this pin on pinterest and yes, it's taken me a while but I finally got around to designing my own. It incorporates Scarlett's room colors and mini theme of butterflies. I really like it, and this actually is the third draft. :)

Tad disappointed that my paper is whiter than the frame but oh well!

There are a couple other pieces I have in mind for this wall.

My awesome consignment find! And handmade mobile.

Trinket shelf. The black bear is from the Smoky Mtns, and the tea set is from Alex's cousin Rachel (and her husband Ewan) from Scotland. The tiny beach themed box contains a tiny bracelet from my mom from a cruise, I believe.

Made that thingy from paper towel, toilet paper rolls.

 Next project coming up is creating an alphabet book for Scarlett with her favorite things! Al la this pin!

If anyone is interested in a print like the one above for their own babe, I'd love to make you one. It's not hard and you could pick the colors too. :)

5 weeks left.. whhat?

Please excuse the poor lighting and lack of tree skirt!

Can anyone even believe that there are 5 weeks or less until I hold a baby girl in my arms that Alex and I made? We kinda can't!

She's supposed to be the weight of a honeydew melon this week. So that's about 5 lbs or so. And still working around 18 or 19 inches long. She's very active and though she makes it a little uncomfortable to change positions while sleeping, she's totally worth it.

What else is happening? Well, I still haven't really organized the stuff we got from the baby shower. I need to figure out where to put things.. like how to store all the hooded towels and tiny wash clothes (my bathroom or hers?) how to organize the clothing in the closet/dresser, where to put the gear we won't use for a couple of months, etc. It's all quietly sitting in the living room sorted into different bags while I sit in another room writing thank you notes (over halfway done!).

Sunday, my first attempt at using homemade stencils on the wall didn't go quite as planned. Spray adhesive is quite sticky if you didn't know. Therefore, I am letting them dry for a while and I will attempt it again later this week. I also wish they sold tiny bottles of spray paint (do they?) and I also might succumb to a white paint marker. This doesn't solve the problem for the pink flowers but i'll cross that bridge when I come to it! I still think it's going to turn out really nice. Also Sunday, Alex and I hung up the shelf and the butterfly frame which is pretty exciting. I need to print a couple of images for the other smaller frames I have but I already know what I'm going to print, which makes it easier. Not too much left to do in the Nursery other than organize and set it all up the way we want.

Last night we 'watched' that Ricki Lake documentary, The Business of being Born. I say 'watched' because we were doing other things while it was on the TV (like writing thank you notes for me and the hunting app for Alex). I went into it knowing that it was a documentary that would try to express the negative connotations associated with giving birth in a hospital as opposed to a home birth. Intervention (such as medication) vs No Intervention. I took it all with a grain of salt. I did learn some interesting facts and it will probably have a small influence on the way I want my birth plan to go (as much as I can control anyway). For instance, I definitely want to steer clear of drugs as much as possible. I am allowing the option of getting an epidural at some point if it becomes unbearable but I hope I don't have to go there. From the way the documentary showed, the nurses are all about speeding up your labor through medical intervention, etc.. If all goes as kind of planned, I won't even be heading to the hospital until the pain is unbearable (unless something weird happens like my water breaks and it's been 24 hours or something and I'm still not progressing) which will leave little room for them to even need to progress the labor for me using drugs. A main thing I want to be able to do is be up and moving around. I don't want to be lying in a hospital bed in pain. I want to be moving and I don't want to deliver a baby lying on my back without the help of gravity. This is all probably a little bit TMI but who's blog is this?

Anyway, she's still growing and I'm still feeling good (other than the stress of whether or not she's breech). I can definitely stand being pregnant another 5 weeks so keep on cooking baby girl!

Mommy & Baby :: Wants and Needs

Brown Knit Booties 1 & 2 : Baby Clutching Toy : Ring thing : Sophie : Felt Shoes

Itzbeen Timer : Mittens : First Aid Kit : Birthing Ball : Pack N Play : FuzziBunz Diapers

The Project List :: Completed Tasks

So I got done 5 out of 9 things.. not bad, right?

Putting the felt backer on for black-out purposes!

Finished!

Wish I had bought more of these to hang, but this will do!

Spray painted Sunday. So no chance of hanging it up the same day!

Glued, but not hung. I don't know where it's 'spot' is quite yet.

Hung!

I couldn't hang the small frames because I don't know where they're going yet. I found a decal set on pinterest that I think i'm going to try to paint myself onto the large wall that is currently blank. I don't want to spoil it by showing it ahead of time. :) But it's going to be awesome. I need to sketch it first on a regular sheet of paper to know I can do it on a larger wall. (If you follow me on pinterest, I pinned it.. oops!)

What else was I supposed to do? Ohh that's right, buy some fabric to make a crib skirt. Well, I didn't make it to JoAnn Fabric.. so that didn't get done. However, I think when it does get done it's going to look great. That's a project for December I think. I also didn't choose any pictures for the wall because I want to wait on that as well, especially with the new 'mural' idea.

There's plenty left to do, luckily I still have 9 weeks to accomplish these things!

Project List :: I think I can

Things I need to accomplish this weekend:
~Finish the wall decor that I started weeks ago. All I have to do is find my hot glue gun and glue it together.. is that so hard?? apparently it is, because i do not know where the glue gun is and i don't even know where to start looking.

~Put up the decor that I got from Urban Outfitters above our bed and then take a picture. Shouldn't be too difficult or time consuming, right? I might as well add in here that we desperately need to move the bed and vacuum under it (the cats love it under there and i'm pretty sure it's covered with hair) and clean the whole room. It gets messy so fast!

~Buy some more of the magenta fabric and create the bed skirt that will match the roman shades. Oh and finish the roman shades! There's only one left to do.

~Spray paint a shelf that I got at a yard sale a few years ago and then hang it.

~Hang the other frames while i'm at it.. after i figure out what to put in them.

~Choose the pictures to hang on the wall. I think this is going to be a tough one and I might just have to wait until we get our maternity pictures done.

That sounds like enough, right? I have lots of other non-baby related things I want to do, like Christmas decor but I figure I have plenty of time for that after Thanksgiving. Not to mention the extensive list I have going of things that need to be cleaned prior to the baby's arrival.. most notably, the refrigerator and the master bathroom. Where will I find the time? Oh, let's say the first week of December, prior to some guests arriving!

I wonder how many things I can check off my list on Friday night? :)

And for an extra challenge.. can I manage to take a picture of all of these things on my list??!?!!

11 weeks to go!

Tomorrow marks the start of Week 29.

Baby girl is over 2 lbs and about 15 inches long. She's moving and shaking in there almost constantly which is quite exciting. She doesn't wake me up at night so I'm sure she's just sleeping along with me (hopefully).

Last week we went to Womb with a View to get a glimpse of her little face. And here's a picture from the DVD we brought home. Her face was shoved into my placenta most of the time, with her hands and feet in her face. So we're actually going back on Thursday for another visit (free, sweeet) to get some good pictures.

It was a really awesome experience that we shared with our parents, some of whom have never seen an ultrasound. We sat in a big room, I was in the back corner and the parents sat in chairs watching a big screen TV. Alex took some pictures of the occasion but I look gross in them so I won't be posting it on here for the whole world (potentially) to see.

We did come home with a 24 minute DVD. It's decent but I think I might ask for a redo on that as well.. Because mostly what you're watching is the tech switching from 3D to 4D back and forth which doesn't make for a great viewing experience. We'll see what they say.

In the picture to the left, you should be able to make out her eyes and nose. I think her mouth is open at this point, probably taking a practice breath or trying to drink some of the juice flavored amniotic fluid (since they made me drink a juice there). Oh.. I didn't mention she was sleeping the whole time, did i? She was. She would not wake up regardless of the juice and some moving and belly shaking from me and the tech. Deep little sleeper!

Things are still going well comfort wise. I've had some round ligament pain (stretching feeling in the lower tum tum) but something I just realized this week is that my back pain has gone away for the most part. Overactive days make it hurt a little bit but nothing like before so that's a success. I've also been getting more throat burn which I'm pretty sure is normal. Other than that.. things are still going easily.

I'm still living it up in normal clothing (other than jeans) and hope it continues. Still no news on the coat front but Alex is excited that he gets another coat.

I wish I could say I worked on Nursery Projects this past weekend but alas.. I did not. I did however buy some awesome stuff to make some christmas decor (pinterest style) and will share those as well. I need to get my booty in gear though with the other roman shade (I finally have more fabritac now) and the other projects I'm working on. When the weather is cooler and it gets darker earlier it just makes me want to relax under my super soft blanket on the couch. I'll work on it though!

11 weeks to go! Can't believe Thanksgiving and Christmas will be mixed in there somewhere!

The Nursery {Part 3 cont'd}

If you remember from the first "Part 3" post, this part is all about the Nursery DIY projects I'm working on.

I recently completed the mobile that we're going to hang over the changing table. I definitely cut out more flowers and butterflies then were needed but that's okay. Maybe I can use them for something else?

Basically the materials needed for this were:
Scrapbook Paper
Scissors
Embroidery Hoop
Fishing Line
Floral Wire

Though it wasn't hard to put together it was time consuming. I jabbed myself a couple of times with the needle to put the holes through the paper but it's all in the name of love.

I just hope that those colors look good against the blue walls in the nursery. It appears the colors we're going with are purple (light/dark/in between), pink (magenta, light pink, maroon) and of course most of our furniture is white, while the walls are an aqua blue. We'll see how it all turns out, fingers crossed.

The next project looks easy. I thought it was going to be easy because the directions are so simple. Well, it's not as easy as it looks folks. It's not hard, just time consuming. Probably because i'm a beginner (this makes me dread the sewing machine a little bit) But since I have to make two of them, I definitely think I can cut some time off of the project with a few short cuts.

Behold, the roman shade. The color looks lighter in the picture then it is in real life (my skills behind the camera are sub-par). There is a navy felt backer which will help create a 'black out' effect when the shades are down, which is exactly what I was going for.

I used our existing mini blinds, felt, fabric and fabritac which is probably the best invention ever if you're trying to glue fabric. The glue they say is just for fabric did not do as well as this and is getting returned! Of course there was a tape measure and scissors involved too. If you want to do something similar, i found the idea on pinterest (where else?) but it links to this blog: Little Green Notebook.

I do need to train them to go up a little bit easier, but the existing mini blinds weren't that easy to get up and down either so I don't expect it to run perfectly.

Couple more projects in the works so stay tuned!

Teaser: The Quilt

Just a teaser photo of the quilt that Alex's mom, Charmayne is making for our baby girl.

Charmayne was telling me yesterday how intensive quilting is, which I wasn't aware of. I didn't realize that after you sew all of your squares together and put the batting in and sew the back on that you have to go through by hand and sew on top of all the squares again. I repeat, by hand. I guess I didn't know much about quilting but I have to say, not that we weren't thankful for this before, we are, definitely, but there's a lot of love, time and effort going into this quilt from Grandma Charmayne. I hope our baby girl will grow with it her whole life and when we explain to her how much love went into it, she'll treasure it forever.

15 weeks to go!

Today marks 25 weeks (or 15 weeks to go)!

Things are still going well. I'm sorry these are so boring and that I don't have anything to report! Though i'm sure at some point i'll say, it's getting more uncomfortable.. that hasn't happened quite yet.

Things get a little crampy sometimes but I do believe that's normal considering I'm growing a human.

I did have something exciting happen on Friday though.

I got new jeans!! I ordered from Old Navy online and I freeeaking love them. Way way way wayyy better then the ones I got from Motherhood Maternity, not to mention, these don't make me look like I have a wide rear-end (or not as much). They are super comfortable and I'm sure i'll get another pair soon because I can't just wear one pair of jeans all the time (or can i?)

Let's see.. what else? Well you saw the post I did yesterday on one of my nursery projects. I'd also like to report that my parents came down on Friday and showed us how to set up the crib (we were clueless!) and it looks great. Here's a picture!

I need to do some touch-ups on it but it looks brand new with it's white paint job. Can't wait to see what the bedding looks like on it.

Next week I'll be creating Roman Shades for the room and hopefully sewing some crib sheets if there's time. I have finally decided on colors for things. I can finish the mobile next weekend too (or maybe this week) and also the wall piece I'm working on. Super pumped for the DIY things to come! (don't worry, i'll post all about them).

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

The Nursery {Part 3}

Part 3 is all about DIY.

I will probably have multiple parts to this "Part 3" since I have a bunch of projects going and a bunch in the queue.

For now, I'll show you the one I completed this weekend.

I saw this on Pinterest and liked it. I only recently thought about adding it to the nursery.

So here's my mini tutorial if you want to create your own.

Supplies:
Canvas (mine is 12 x 12)
White paper
Wax Paper
Puffy Paint
Mod Podge (or homemade version*)

Steps:

Step 1, put your design on your piece of white paper, what you want to trace with the puffy paint. Since I liked what I saw on Pinterest, I just copied it. It may not be identical but I did the best I could free-hand.

Step 2, put the white paper under the wax paper and use the puffy paint to trace the outlines. Since i'm right handed, I went left to right to avoid smudging what I had already done. I probably didn't make as thick of a bead as I should've but it turned out fine.

Step 3, let it dry. The puffy paint said 4 hours. I just waited until the next day.

Step 4, peel it off the wax paper, carefully! Today, I spent time peeling and placing the pieces exactly where they would go but on the table just to make sure I had it down.

Step 5, apply one coat of mod podge to the canvas where you'll be sticking the puffy paint peels to.

Step 6, move each peeled piece over to the canvas, this wasn't the easiest thing but it surely wasn't difficult. Piece by piece I recreated the same design by staring at my original sketch.

Sorry, this is probably hard to see.

Step 7, after each piece is laid, put another coat of mod podge onto the canvas work area.

Step 8, let it dry. Test it later and if it needs another coat of mod podge, do it.

Ta dah!

This would also look cool with a different color puffy paint. I liked the white on white but it would really stand out in a different color.

*I created my own mod podge by combining one bottle of elmers glue and then filled the bottle with water, shook it and added it to the old sauce jar, then I shook that. Easy peasy. {I found the 'recipe' here}

The Nursery {Part 2}

Let's talk about furniture, shall we?

My parents were generous enough to lend us the crib and changing table from when we were babies. My niece used the same crib and changing table when she was a baby as well. (I'm aware of the current crib safety standards). They both started out a vintage yellow gold. We decided to spray paint them white. I don't have a picture of the crib yet because we can't figure out how to put it together, but when we get it together, I will post it. In the meantime, here is the before and after of the changing table.

This next piece, I found while shopping at a consignment sale with Erin. I couldn't believe it was still there when I arrived because I got there rather late and it's a very nice piece. I need to redo the drawer liners but it will definitely hold a lot. We weren't planning to buy a dresser so this is going to work out perfectly! And it fits right inside the closet.

We bought this shelf from Ikea and Laurel lovingly helped me put it together. I need to figure out what's going to go in the shelf holes but I think it's going to fit really nicely in the room overall. Plus, you can't have enough storage, right?

Please ignore the changing pad, it obviously won't be going on this.

And last but not least is the rocking chair we just got off Craigslist for a steal! It's such a nice chair. I'm actually sitting in it right now bc our computer chair is broken. I thought for a minute about painting it white as well but I just can't. Regardless of the fact that it doesn't really fit into the room, I just can't disgrace it like that. I'll be putting a nice cushion on it though for comfort, hopefully that'll tie it to the room a little bit better.

This weekend I went to AC Moore and Michaels to get some supplies to make a mobile. That will probably be featured in part 3 of this nursery series along with another craft I plan to do for one of the walls. Still on the list of things to do is sew crib sheets, curtains, a crib skirt and recover a bumper for the crib. I also want to recover the bassinet that Jess is letting us borrow. It's frilly and white and I don't really like the styling. Lots more to do but it will all definitely make the nursery more cozy for the little one.

Updated to add the Crib image on 10/9/11:

Here is the crib all put together with a little help from my parents! It looks great in the room and I'm very excited to sew the crib sheets, recover the bumper and eventually put the quilt on it. Eeeee!

Delaware +. Ikea + Bachlorette + Baby Shower = Busy

Busy weekend!

Friday after work, we headed down to DE to spend time with Nick and Laurel. They made a delicious dinner, we at Gelato on Main Street and played Mad Gab, which was hilarious to say the least. I almost touched their cat Dilla, which is pretty much a success because he's the shyest kitty on the planet (but also possibly the cutest).

Saturday morning, after breakfast we headed to Ikea in Baltimore. It was awesome. I hadn't been to Ikea in about 6 years so it was nice to go back and see the whole showroom setup. We ended up getting a bunch of stuff for the nursery. We got a 4 cube shelf, some picture frames, some little globe-y lamp things that I want to use as 'night lights' as well as the image to the right.. I pinned it a while back but didn't actually look to see where it was from. Pleasant surprise to find it at Ikea, at obviously an awesome price. Now i don't have to try to recreate it myself! We also got some new bathmats for the bathroom up there as well as a new shower curtain. I'm going to try to add pops of color in there as well. Why not! The last thing we got was a shelf for the dining room to go over the kegerator to hold beer glasses. Alex put it together and we put it up yesterday, so i'll snap a picture of it and include it in the post about our new mailbox that Alex also installed. He's so handy! Anyway, back to Saturday. After Ikea, we hit up PF Changs (and weren't overly impressed due to the amount of hype we heard prior) but it was still good. I love fried green beans and they give a huge plate as an appetizer.

After this late lunch we parted ways. I had a bachelorette party to go to in the evening which started at Jen's house with silly cookies and sangria that looked amazing (but I couldn't drink, obviously). We headed to dinner at Cultura's and it turned out I had an awesome coupon for 50% off food. Cultura's is a tapas restaurant so we probably ordered 30 plates of food to share between 10 people. It was delicious as always. I thoroughly enjoyed my two raspberry (virgin) margaritas as well as some red raspberry ice cream from the Strasburg Creamery. After dinner we headed to the bride's sisters home to hang out, play games and watch a movie. We played Mad Gab, which was hilarious again and then watched Bridesmaids which I was so excited to see. The movie was funny but had some slow parts. That whole night, I probably did more laughing then I have in a long time. That group of girls are hilarious! I ended up getting home around 3am. Crazy! Time had just flown by and I didn't realize it. I knew I would have to do some hardcore sleeping in the next morning.

And that's exactly what I did. I finally got up around 10:30am. I putz-ed around and then vacuumed the house. We put the shelf up above the kegerator like I mentioned above. Then we headed to our friends Courtney & Derek's couples baby shower. We'd never been to a couples shower before but it was so fun. They had some cute games like guess the baby food flavor (which baby food is pretty gross, even more reason why i'm probably going to make my own food, although the fruit was much better then the meals) and bobbing for nipples, which Nick won! We got to meet Dedra and Justin's brand new baby boy, Jack, who was super cute wrapped up in Dedra's (what i'm assuming is a) Moby Wrap. He was so tiny at 2 weeks old, which is completely normal obviously, and when Alex was holding him he looked like a complete natural. Cue the awes. After the shower, Nick and Alex watched the Eagles game we recorded and Laurel and I watched Bridesmaids.. long movie, the funny kind of dies off in the end and is brought back with the Wilson Phillips. There was a small break at half time for them to move furniture though which was a huge help. I'm so glad that's completed and now I can actually take picture of the nursery and get moving on all my other things related to it. After Nick and Laurel headed back to DE, Alex went over to the Herr's to watch the night game and I really needed to go to the grocery store, so I did that, plus I hadn't eaten anything since lunch so I made some spaghetti/meatballs and spent the rest of the evening facetiming with Julia and then my parents. Gosh facetime is amazing.. it's going to come in SO handy when we have this little bundle.

That sums up our super busy weekend. I can't believe it's already the 2nd week of September. This month is flying by already! Tomorrow I will take a picture of my 21 week bump to share with you! It's definitely getting bigger!

The Nursery {part 1}

These posts will be in pieces due to the 'work in progress' scenario that we're currently in. I won't reveal the whole nursery until the last post but there are bits and pieces that I would like to share. Starting with color.

With aqua blue walls that aren't being repainted, we decided to just do splashes of color around the room instead of deciding on one or two other colors to focus on. Here are the paint chips that I have for inspiration. I haven't decided yet between the lighter or the darker of the two sets. (Sorry for the blurry left one).

We bought some shelving board at Home Depot that Alex is going to cut down into 12" x 12" pieces that I'm going to use for the wall decor. Some of the 8 pieces will be painted and some will get scrapbook paper adhered to them for some pattern.

All furniture will be white, as you'll see in part 2 but i'm not quite sure yet about the rocking chair. Our friend Glen had a great suggestion this weekend to help me get what I want with the chair in this post so I need to explore those options a little bit more.

And despite my sincere distaste for the state of the bathroom upstairs, the most I will probably do is remove the wallpaper and repaint it. Maybe i'll go into detail about the rest of the bathroom in another post, maybe not. ;)

Obviously we have more plans for the nursery that haven't come to fruition in our minds yet to even speak about but I have plenty of ideas.. including sewing my own (or asking my MIL for help) crib sheets so that I can make sure to get the pattern/colors that I want. Exciting things to come!

5 Random Thoughts

We're getting closer and closer to the big reveal. I bet you're all on the edge of your seats, aren't you. HA!

I just wanted to jot down a couple random thoughts from today.

{pin}

Thought #1: I wish that I could sew my own clothing. I say this because i'm having some real trouble finding anything that I would even remotely want to purchase on any of the maternity clothing websites i've browsed (gap, old navy, motherhood, jcpenney, the expensive ones like pea in a pod, etc). Even H&M was disappointing last time I was there. Is there no where to get cute maternity clothes?? Forever21 has a line but it's way little.. by little i mean there isn't much to choose from, tanks, camis and leggings. I could live in those, sure, but they aren't quite 'work appropriate'. I have a pair of Forever stretchy jeans that still fit (and button, woo hoo high five!) so i'm thinking maybe i'll just buy normal jeans a size or so bigger so that they're slouchy and can button easily. I just don't get maternity tops. My mom commented to me a couple weeks ago (while I was wearing a normal tank with a cardigan) that they make looser fitting tops for pregnant people.. implying i should probably start wearing them. No offense to the clothing I got from my older sis (from 5 years ago!) but it's outdated and i'm not going to walk around wearing a shirt that says baby in rhinestones. I want to wear clothing like the picture above, but in adult sizes. Why do they make the cutest clothing for kids (at an awesome price by the way) and not have the same styles (albeit a little different) for adults. It's some kind of joke, isn't it? Anyway, back to sewing. Obviously, I don't know how to sew.. if i did.. i wouldn't be complaining. I mean, maybe I should just learn to sew, and then learn where to buy all the 'cool' fabric so that I can make my own cardigans and maternity tops and then i'll start a fashion line and rule the world. bahaha, just kidding. What a long thought, am i right?

Thought #2: We decided on nursery colors. I plan to do some posts on this including before and after and i wish i had an inspiration board to share but to be honest, i don't really know how to make those, and the inspiration is more in my brain than on an image that already exists (but check out this post or this post for some of the nursery related thoughts). Oh, you want to know the colors? How silly of me not to mention them. I can't possibly tell you the colors without revealing the gender.. so this will have to wait. I even wrote everything out and then thought, what the heck.. everyone will know if I write all this now. Sorry charlies.

Thought #3: Headed to the gym today again. Looking forward to it. Then i'm going to make dinner and probably do more laundry. I should probably mop the kitchen too.. it's a cream colored floor so it shows so much dirt so easily. But that means I have to vacuum first. We'll see if I have time for all of these things.

Thought #4: Every morning when I get in my car to go to work.. I wonder how long it's going to take to get used to driving this new car. This reminds me that I haven't taken a picture of it yet. Put that on my list of things to do this evening as well!

Thought #5: Tomorrow is Friday!!!!! Add to that the fact that I might get out at 3pm due to the holiday weekend and also we have off on Monday! I live for these work holidays even though they only come 10 times a year. That seams like a lot but it isn't.

Nursery Layouts

While thinking about all the things (and making a list of things!) I'm going to need for the nursery. I started to think about the layout.

Things to consider (from what I read):
- Don't put the crib by the window due to the temperature changes. Windows are obviously colder in the winter and hotter in the summer. The sun actually rises on the back of the house onto the only window in the room. While positive for winter, it's a negative for summer. We will be getting great curtains that hopefully retain heat in the winter (and our windows are from 1998 so they aren't inefficient) but we probably won't be putting the crib by the window.
- Don't put the crib by the window because when they grow and can stand in the crib, they could get tangled in the blinds. No brainer.
- Keep the Crib and Rocker/Glider close to one another for grab and feed sessions in the wee hours.
- Keep the dresser and changing table close to each other for 'within arms reach' clothing for necessary changes. We won't have a dresser out in the room, so the changing table will be stocked with essentials.
- Place the diaper pail and a trash container by the changing table. No brainer.
- Put a nightstand or place the bookshelf close to the rocker/glider with a light on it just in case you need to access one quickly in the middle of the night. Or use it as a place to set things when you don't want to get up.

Okay, that's enough tips. Here are the layouts I designed on babysdream.com.

 

Okay so, I'm partially not following a rule when it comes to the crib by the window in the top right layout but I still like it. I need to run these by Alex as well to get his favorite. I also like the crib in the middle of the room but i'd probably have to see that in person to get a feel for it. The fact that there are 3 doors in the room (the main entrance is the lower right door, the bottom door goes out to storage and the top right door goes into the bathroom) and two large closets takes up two of the walls already and a large window takes up most of the 3rd wall, leaving only one full wall is challenging. And that's really the big wall I wanted to decorate, so we'll have to see how it goes. I do like the idea of having some living plants in there to purify the air a little bit.

Which layout do you like best?

Want vs Need

{link}

I saw it here. {Awesome blog by the way} And now I think I need it. 

Alex has informed me that this is a want. And a pretty unrealistic one based on the price tag.
{he's right on both accounts}

I told him we could find the chair part on craigslist and we can make the bottom part.

His reponse was that we probably couldn't find a chair that someone didn't pee on.

I find that false but haven't been able to find a chair similar to this or remotely what I would want. 

At least not on the Lancaster craigslist.

Doesn't it look so comfy though?

Do people do yard sales in the fall??????

16 weeks 3 days and Nursery Inspiration

Today is 16 weeks and 3 days into pregnancy.

Things are still going quite smoothly and I couldn't be more thankful. I've had a couple of small stretching pains but nothing other than that.

The bump is getting a bit bigger as you may have seen yesterday. Here's a picture today so you can see it went back down! :)

There really isn't much else to report at this point. Just chomping at the bit to find out if it's a boy or a girl.

Moving onto the Nursery Inspiration.

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When I saw the top image on pinterest, I really liked it. Obviously the colors will be a bit different since our room is currently aqua but I do plan to decide the other colors when we know the gender.

For a girl, I think orange, pink, purple and light yellow would be great and contrast well with the rest of the aqua room.

For a boy, I think orange, lime, teal and maybe silver would be cool looking. I'd obviously have to get some swatches together to make sure.

Then I saw the second image. Which shows exactly what I was thinking about doing. Squares are cool but diamonds are better. I would make them bigger then shown in this picture though since they'll be multiple colors.

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I still need to figure out how i'm going to get my tape that straight on a 45 degree angle and how i'm going to make sure the paint doesn't get under the tape. More googling is in order I guess.

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This is, however, why I love love love Pinterest.

And just for good measure. Here is another thing I love and plan to do in the nursery. What a great way to display books!

I could show you way more on my baby board, but if you want, just take a look for yourself. {here}

After this friday, when my sister moves out, we'll be rearranging furniture and I'll start sanding the crib pieces and the changing table to prepare to spray paint it white.

Does anyone know the rules about painting while pregnant? Obviously I want to paint a wall and spray paint some stuff, which i'll be doing outdoors when I can. But I think I might just rely on good ventilation when painting the wall. It shouldn't take too long anyway!

Nursery Inspiration {Pinterest Edition}

Lot's of nursery inspiration on Pinterest. Probably too much! The good thing is, a lot of it is DIY and easy. Without further adieu.

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The bedroom that will become the nursery is currently an aqua bluish color. We don't plan to repaint even if we have a girl because that's too much of a hassle, and i enjoy the blue. I've found plenty of nursery ideas that have blue walls, as you can see above. I really like the pinwheels and the mobile with the tree branch and paper butterflies. I also like the bottom image, that i forgot to put into the collage, the genius of that is.. it's made out of toilet paper rolls that are glued together! crazy, right!?

We don't have a theme that we're going with but depending on gender we'll push it a little more one way or the other. But we'll have to wait and see for that!

Guess what, tomorrow is friday! I'm pumped!