Nursery Progress

I've mentioned a couple times my obsession with the bedding I picked out. When the bedding came in a few weeks ago, it was all I could do to not pull it all out. 2 weeks later, the crib came in. It stayed in the ox approximately 12 hours. Despite feeling craptastic that day, I ended up rearranging furniture between the nursery and the NASCAR room. By the time the crib mattress came later in the week, I has almost finished the nursery. You could say I'm nesting, but I think I has more to do with my obsessive personality. I get something on my mind and I want it done NOW. Isn't it better to stay up late putting furniture together than laying in bed, not sleeping and thinking about it? I  also love to decorate...with these three things against me, you shouldn't be surprised the nursery only has a few decor items left to complete.

So, without further ado, here's the nursery thus far. 

As you walk on the door...the walls are Spring Cactus by Behr. When I painted this room 3 1/2 years ago, I loved the green with my pink and green bedding, but I did pick a color that would work for a gender neutral nursery. I'm a sneaky one. 

The Crib: Delta Sedona in Cherry from Babies R Us. The ceiling tiles will come down, although I kinda like them there. The book basket will actually be a larger basket or tub for toys. 

The bedding: Mod Dot by Skip Hop. The stuffed animals are just temporary.

The twin bed,  and my polka dot inspired hanging lanterns. I'd like to get some brown shams for the euro shams. The shams at the front at actually a light blue, that goes well with the bedding. 

Rocker Recliner instead of glider and my new boppy pillow. That will eventually live downstairs. I plan on putting a shadow bow of hospital memorabilia on the wall with the itty bitty frame. and possibly some floating shelves on the wall behind the chair. 

Our old dresser, housed in the closet. While there is a crib and a twin bed in this room, it'll have to stay in here. The bins at the top of the closet came from Dollar Tree and will house blankets, extra bedding, etc. 2 will go downstairs eventually for bottles and bibs. 

The other side of the closet...this will eventually have a cubed shelf for toy storage. For now, my car seat, stroller, and box of too big outfits will have to stay here. 

So...what's left? A few things...

I love this tutorial on creating these, but substituting baby blue and crimson for the background colors. 

Or I could just get a custom one made by Chickadee Digital. Might be easier. 

I need two of these from Bed, Bath, and Beyond...one for dirty diapers and one for laundry. 

And I plan to do something similar to this from Design Sponge behind the door. 

I still need to find something to put over the twin bed, and some floating shelves that I like. I figure I have plenty of time to keep looking for those, though!

Week 19

How far along?  19 weeks!

How big is baby? A Mango or Heirloom Tomato...6 inches and 8 1/2 ounces

Total weight gain/loss: Ugh...Up two more this week. I will say I did eat better for the first half of the week, but not the second half. I have felt like crap and therefore eaten like crap. Plus I must have a pound or two of phlegm in my head.

Maternity clothes? I think I need to invest in another pair of maternity pants. Costco is currently carrying their yoga pants which come in variable lengths. I would like to a pair a size larger than what currently have. I also bit the bullet and laid down the $28 for an actual Ingrid and Isabel BellaBand. I've hear the quality is much better than the Motherhood Maternity one I have, so I am hoping it will stay up better. I ordered it through Amazon, along with another little gift for myself (or the little one, depending upon how you look at it), so I am anxiously awaiting it's arrival later this week.

Sleep: Pretty good. 

Best moment this week: We received our first baby gift! My friend Rachel gave us two teething toys, a version of Oh, The Places You'll Go that is intended to be read in utero (she swears she read it to her daughter every night until she was born) and another book by Sandra Boynton (who, ironically, my friend Holly just blogged about). I am so appreciate of Rachel's thoughtfulness and eager to start reading to the baby!

Movement: Very active. I had to go to the Dr for a possible illness, and he popped back in for a moment to ask if I had felt any movement yet. My response, "Yes, it kicked when you left because it was feeling neglected."

Food Cravings: Meatballs and milk. Not necessarily together, but also not a bad idea. 

Food Aversions:Bananas 

Gender: We find out in 12 days, 20 hours, and 19 mins. Not that I'm counting or anything. 

Labor Signs: None. 

Pregnancy Symptoms: My dry eyes have subsided some -yay! Otherwise, my pregnancy symptoms have been overshadowed by feeling sick this week-congestion, lightheaded, body aches.  I also have had this weird tingly, numbing sensation beneath my shoulder blade, which I wrote off as needing to see the chiropractor again, or at least getting a new bra. When my au t said my grandmother was diagnosed with shingles, I got a little nervous, and per the recommendation of my OB and PCP, ended up with a quick visit to my Dr yesterday afternoon.  No shingles, just an upper respiratory infection. Fabulous. 

Belly Button in or out? In. 

What I miss: Being able to sneeze without peeing myself, which is huge while sick. 

What I am looking forward to: Getting over this cold/infection thing. I felt so lame going to the Dr  Friday...I had really hoped the Dr would just tell me to watch things and call them if it gets worse. But I guess better safe than sorry. 

Upcoming appointments/events: Anatomy scan, check up, and sex reveal photo session January 25. I'm dying to start registering between now and then, too. 

Weekly Wisdom:You are still human, regardless of anything else going on.

Milestones: So...as I mentioned earlier I purchased a a little something else from Amazon along with the BellaBand. Partially to get free shipping, and more because I wanted to, I went ahead and purchased the first piece to work on the nursery. I have been lusting over Skip Hop's Mod Dot Bedding for about a year or so now-well before we were trying to conceive. I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and order just the sheet. I want to see it in person and make sure it was what I really wanted. 

Courtesy of Amazon

I love the primary colors, and I certainly have a thing for polka dots. I think it's going to look awesome in there. Here's an example of what I am thinking about doing.







Not the best, but it gives you an idea. I'm so eager to get started on this. I'm not sure how much is my love of decorating and how much is nesting setting in. What I do know is I have too much school work to do than to worry about this right now, but it's so much more fun to worry about a nursery than grade tests and research papers!

Powder Room Redo!

So it looks like I've turned into a once-a-week poster. In my defense, things have been super busy around here. This coming week is going to be on the calmer side, but after that, life is particularly crazy. Sunday mornings seem to one of the few times of peace and quiet I have without wanting to pass out and fall asleep.

We finally found our digital camera, which means I have share my latest decorating project with you! Yay!
It's only about 3 weeks late.

So this was my powder room 4 years ago when we moved it. It was great. Already painted, updated fixtures...all I had to do was pick an accent color and I was good to go.

But then time passed...and as much as I loved the green, it was showing wear and tear and in desperate need of a new coat of paint. Since the previous owners had done the last paint job, I had no idea what it was. the question became do I try to match the paint as well as possible, or do I just go for something different. I debated over and over again, until I came across this.

A Lemon Lavender Candle from Yankee Candle. It smelled divine, and the picture on it look so fresh. That was it for me. I was going to have a yellow bathroom with lavender accents. After about a month of paint chips taped to the wall, (and asking everyone's opinion who came by), I settled on Glidden's Lemon Ice. Throw in some lavender hand towels I found at a local discount store, a monogram towel from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and some black and white prints from Ikea, and you have my new favorite room in the house.Oh, and of course there are some strategically placed Lemon Lavender votives.  I am absolutely in love with how it turned out.

Outdoor Halloween Decorations

For the past few years, I've wanted to add in tombstones outside. Store bought ones just weren't good enough for me-the hubs and I wanted to put our own inscriptions on them. Unfortunately, I do not have a saw, but my wonderful father was kind enough to cut these out of plywood for me and add in some stakes so they would go into the ground a bit easier. I tried spray painting them first, which did not work, but acted as a nice base or primer coat. Then I found the perfect grey exterior paint in the “oops bin” at Home Depot. One quart was a plenty for what I needed, and I was thrilled to only pay $1. So each tombstone received a couple coats, followed by a light coating of Valspar’s Stone Effect spray paint. It gave a nice general effect of stone. Finally, I painted on the names, dates, and quotes from our subjects: Romeo & Juliet, Darth Vader, The Wicked Witch of the West, Mufasa, and Kenny. A random selection, but they worked for us. I also added in two ghosts I found at JoAnn’s. Originally, I was going to make them, but these were cheaper than I could have made them for.







I found these cornstalks at our local farmer’s market, which have been up since the end of September with my scarecrow and pumpkins. I cannot wait to carve the pumpkins for Halloween!

I found these tins at Target in the “Dollar Spot.” They were actually $2.50 each, but they were a heck of a lot cheaper than similar $10 ones I had seen around. The pumpkin lights are also from Target’s “Dollar Spot,” although also $2.50. (Apparently, I have expensive tastes even when it’s coming from the cheap section of the store!)

For Halloween evening, we will add in a strobe light behind the Romeo & Juliet tombstone, a CD with creepy sounds playing from on the front porch, and, of course, carved pumpkins.I'm also hoping that I can finagle a dark, cloaked figure on the bench on our front porch to intimidate trick-or-treaters and party goers.