Love Dub's Nursery

This is now my favorite room in the house, a true labor of love, and I'm finally calling it done after months of adding to it.

 It started with a purchase of an Etsy print with teal, mustard, and grey, the color theme of the room and went from there. Then, I decided on the theme: peaceful woodland motif.  My sister in law teased me that my theme for our son's room is "animals that love babies", and she's probably right!  I included deer, tiny birdies, and owls... you know, all the adorable Bambi characters with huge, eye-lash framed eyes.   And, yes, owls and birdies are probably overly trendy, but I still love them!

Here it is: 

I started by deciding to keep the rug and wall color from the original office, just to save on cash.  I figured the wall color was neutral enough and the busy rug can potentially hide puke stains from a crawling little one.

I spent about three hours adding the wall decals of trees and leaves to half of the room.  The only way I talked Dan into it is that they can be removed with a hair dryer when we decide to sell.  He was nice enough to get on a ladder to do the higher parts.

I bought the bird house for $4 from Walmart and painted it a mustard color:

The birdie and polka dot bedding is from Land of Nod.  Mr. Owl is just hanging out in the crib until our boy arrives, and then it's strictly SIDS safety time sans the quilt or toy.

I was going to buy a new light fixture, but then I read that fans actually decrease the risk of SIDS, so instead I wired a mustard print lamp shade in place of the outdated bulb.

I wanted to include a lot of aqua/turquoise and found a changing pad that in non-porous (i.e. pee and poop proof) and doesn't require a cover (less laundry, hopefully).

Organizing has never been more fun :)

These diapers signed by guests at my shower crack me up!  I've resolved to only read these five and save the other ones for when I'm postpartum and exhausted:

Here is the bookshelf with advice books, stories for him, toys, and breast-feeding supplies (I've decided to give it a try and see how it goes).  The lamp is from Target, from the "leaving to go to dorm" college section. I like that it has a blue lining that reveals itself when it's lit:

Here's are the two Etsy prints that inspired the color scheme:

Books from loved ones:

My two splurges were the glider and ottoman (both from Target).  I wanted something with a tall enough back to be comfortable for Dan:

No one in my family understands my love for the ceramic deer head.  They remarked several times about it being bound to terrify our guy, but I still think it adds a touch of modern, trendiness to the room, plus it goes with the "we're in the woods" theme.

Lastly, my favorite touch is probably this painting that my friend Katelyn painted for me!  She saw the nursery when it was under construction and made a custom little owl family in the same colors I was using:

I mean... can we talk about this cuteness??

So that's the virtual tour of the 10 by 8 nursery that could!  It will never be this organized or clean again, so I'm glad I documented it now.  :)

Foyer Update

Apparently, summer and September are the only times we ever do updates on our home.  I would blame nesting instincts, but in actuality, I keep a mammoth "get it done" list for our house the entire year and then finally get off my ass to get things done in late August.  

Not much to see, but I wanted to share my little foyer update. It probably doesn't translate via a few pictures very well, but here it goes. We started with this:

Dingy caulk on ceiling, ugly light, minimal storage:

And now "foyer" viewing pleasure... let's fast forward:

 one painting of ceiling,

 four hooks,

 a giant basket, 

a complicated construction of a ladder shelf, 

an installation of a cool light fixture, 

and a rug that matches the light later...

I love this light fixture's Moroccan tile feel...

  It was kinda like the Sheldon of house spaces... completely awkward.  You know, with it's random door in the middle and no real wall space.  It doesn't look like much, but it took us forever and I'm much happier with it now.  Now, I have a place to store keys, bags, greeting cards from friends/family, etc, and have I mentioned the light fixture is my favorite in the house??

House stuff never feels done, you know?  I get major envy whenever I check out all those DIY blogs.  Oh, and Dan and I sneaked in a few hours going on home tours of "dream homes" yesterday. Massey Cancer Center bought four homes in Chester, Va and had designers work their magic on them.  

I mean... can we talk??

Coffered ceilings..

Fancy kitchens...

Man rooms Dan was in love with (I thought this was a bit much, like something Hefner would hang out in, but he adored it.  Must have been all the leather)...

Tubs I would never want to leave...

Sigh... nice to dream.  

My house reality is that it takes me seven years to update a room the size of a large dining room table.  

Still, I feel accomplished. :)

Second Trimester

 Forty-two days from my due date, and I am a happy, yet stressed out, mess.

Last week alone, I managed to lock my keys in my car, almost burn our house down, and register for the wrong graduate class.  We ripped all our window AC units for a house project the same week there were 85+ degree nights.  I had to call a cab to meet someone for lunch because I couldn't find my keys anywhere, a separate key emergency than the one I previously mentioned.  Just call us the dream team.

But I'm getting ahead of myself by skipping an entire time period!  All of the above is from the chaotic, wonderful, insane third trimester (which I will post about soon), but I realized that I never wrote much about the blissful second one.  You know, the one when it was summer and I mostly got to sleep in late and plan the nursery.  I've promised myself that I would devote at least one post to each trimester, just to record a few things for posterity's sake.  Please feel free to skip this post if you are annoyed by rundowns of this sort.  I've been there and completely understand.

Anyway, here are a few things that I want to remember:

* The last day of school last year.  I kept mum for twenty weeks, but I decided that since it was the very last day of school, I could nonchalantly confirm the whispers that I sometimes heard in class.  I called out, "So, some of you may know that I'm expecting my first baby in the fall, and here he is!" and held up the ultrasound picture.  There was a chorus of "awws" from the females and the boys barely looked up from their discussion of video games.  After that, I went back to signing everyone's yearbook.

One particularly bold girl who has always tried to talk to me like she's a mini adult had a totally different reaction that cracked me up, though.   She sauntered up to my desk and as I was about to sign her yearbook, she screeched, "I knew it!! I knew it!  There was one day when you was REAL moody and the next day you was all happy and I wondered if you were about to start your period, but then I remembered my cousin who is having a baby in the summer and I just KNEW IT!"   

That is a word for word quote, by the way.

* putting together a nursery.  Post to come, but here are a few preview shots:

Decals on the wall and furniture selected:

Painting wall decorations:

* finally feeling comfortable to take bump photos and telling my inner OCD self to shut it.  I decided that rather than boring the interweb by posting them all on here, I'll just throw together a tiny Shutterfly album for me to keep for posterity's sake once he's here.  Here are just two of them:

* heartburn that made me sleep sitting up and a baby who just loves to play on my bladder, so much so that I thought I had a UTI.  I'm not complaining as this comes with the territory and I really haven't had much to deal with in terms of side effects.  Just wanted to remember all aspects of this pregnancy, even the Tums and three hour blood tests and doctor visits.

* my mom making me a "nojito" when everyone else was drinking at the beach

Side note: I'm laughing hysterically because my mom read an obscure horror story about a women developing welts because she had some kind of a sun reaction after she made a margarita... something about citrus not jiving with UVA rays.  Notice my mom's safety precaution, rubber gloves, in this photo.

* the moment where the ultrasound technician turned the screen around to show our baby's goods and there was a definite third appendage and she said, "You two are having a son!" and I couldn't stop the tears of joy.

* cupcakes with blue icing centers. 

* the creepy blow-up baby from our CPR class and watching Dan practice mouth to mouth on it:

If I'm going to share these pictures of Dan, then you also can enjoy this extremely flattering one of me:

* when our prayers were answered  when our prayers were answered when our prayers were answered when our prayers were answered...  We are so grateful.

So that's a few of the highlights of the second trimester.  Some non-baby house posts to come and then, of course, ones about the nursery and third trimester.  Where has time gone??