(Almost) Final Nursery

I can't say there won't be another Final FINAL Nursery post - because I know there are a few more things that we'll be incorporating into the room - some shelves (sorry Chad, hadn't told you about this yet), storage, etc.

But..... for the most part - WE ARE DONE.

{baby jack's nursery}

I absolutely adore Jack's room - it is definitely becoming one of my favorite rooms in the house. It is so calming and serene, and, well - beautiful. We put a lot of hard work into making this room special - including lots of DIY projects.

So without further adieu...

{crib and cloud "mobile"}

{more crib + clouds}

{side view}

{crib and bedding}

{crib}

{crib bedding}

{the "clouds" came from by baby shower -thanks for the idea mom and sis!}

{end table, glider and ottoman, dresser and art}

{end table, chair and ottoman}

{dresser and art}

{details: lambie rattle from Pinehurst, "advice jar" to Jack and letter J from my shower}

{lovie and ratte from Eliza and Molly respectively, burp clothes from Heather}

So there it is --- Now all we need is the baby!


All the deets
Paint - Benjamin Moore, Lake Placid and Sherwin Williams, Dover White
Crib - Million Dollar Baby, Annabelle
Glider and ottoman - Best Chairs, Quinn
Bedding - Serena & Lily, Blake
Cloud mobile - Martha Stewart (raindrops by sister)
Toile minky blanket - Etsy, no longer available
Pictures - DIY based-off Spot on Square
Dresser and end table - bought unfinished, painted ourselves
Side table lamp - Target
Lovie and rattle - Angel Dear

Nursery storage

If Jack's dresser drawers are any indication, babies have A LOT OF STUFF.

{almost as many clothes as my mama}

I needed some cute storage solutions for not a ridiculous amount of money. Land of Nod is having a pretty swell summer sale, so I was able to pick up this in a navy blue:


and one of the big and little ones of these in green and blue, respectively, for under $50!


So now I'll have a place to put the knickknacks - toys, lovies, books, stuffed animals, rattles, etc. - that have already accumulated around our house.

Nursery... just a taste

We have another "project" for the nursery I hope to have finished by tomorrow night, so hopefully Friday I'll do an updated nursery post.

Lots of changes since I last posted!

But for now, here's just a taste:

Nursery updates and more

So I kicked off my weekend last Friday by getting together for lunch with one of my sweet girlfriends, Eliza, who was in town from D.C. We had a great time at lunch catching up - and probably spoke a million miles a minute to try to recap everything that was going on in our lives.

{me (@29wks) and eliza }

She also brought the sweetest little gifts for baby J - including a "pee pee teepee" which is exactly what it sounds like, and exactly the type of gift Eliza would crack up over buying.


Man this little boy is spoiled already! I forgot to take a picture of the precious Kissy Kissy outfit my love Laura bought for him last week. How lucky was I to be able to lunch with THREE college girlfriends within five days. What a great week!

The weekend continued by knocking some things off the nursery checklist. Our Quinn chair and glider arrived and has already become my new favorite seat in the house!

The sage toile minky blanket hanging on the back is this little love:


... and it has a story behind it! A couple years ago, in the midst of our trying to conceive, I was surrounded by friends getting pregnant. So I was having to constantly shop for baby shower gifts for friends, despite a pain in my heart and a barren womb. Well I found this gorgeous blanket on Etsy and fell in love. I marked it as one of my favorites and would go back and look at it from time to time. I wondered if I should buy it for a friend, because I refused to by anything for my future baby because I was terrified we'd never get pregnant.

But this blanket just had a hold on me. I finally sucked it up and bought it - telling myself if I became convinced purchasing something for our non-existent baby would jinx me, I'd give it to a friend. So I've had it sitting in the back of a closet for almost two years! I'm SO glad I bought and kept it because it's a gentle reminder of a tender stage of our lives. I can't wait to wrap baby up in all its softness!

Chad also finished painting Baby J's new dresser, and hung two of the new pictures! We have the third one done, but haven't been able to put it up yet. I swear Chad and I can never finish a project without some unforeseen (minor) complication that delays it. I know it's God's way of teaching me patience. I'm definitely a "get it done" girl - so it drives me up a wall to have a project half-finished.

We (and by we, I mean Chad) still need to prime and paint the end table to go next to the chair, but after that's finished... we're really pretty much done with the nursery --- minus a few knick knacks!

But the room is really coming along and I couldn't be more pleased. It's such a sweet, calming room and I wish the pictures could do it justice. Everyone who has seen it in person said they love it so much more than they even did online. It's just hard to translate to pictures!

Weekending

Happy Monday everyone.

I'm having a hard time believing that May is almost over.

That gives me June and July... and then sometime during August, a little boy will make his big debut! Crazy.

So, all in all, it was a pretty busy weekend. I guess for the gestational diabetes update, things have been going fine. I've been great about testing my blood sugar levels at all the right times. All my readings (up until today) have been completely normal... if not low. Today, my fasting level and my post-breakfast level are just a little over... 3 or 4 points... which is odd, because - at least for breakfast - I ate the exact same thing I've been eating all week that has given me super-low levels. Go figure. Looking forward to the doctor's appointment on Thursday to hear what they say.

Other than that - we're just busy, busy! After some deliberation, Chad decided that he wanted to pull all the fescue grass out of our yard and hire someone to re-sod with zoysia (a warm-weather grass.) I hemmed and hawed over the whole thing because I realllly didn't want a warm-weather grass (that goes dormant once it gets cold), but our yard is just too big and gets way too much sun to justify trying to keep fescue alive during the hot summers. Our irrigation bill last summer was out.of.control. and we still ended up with burnt grass.

I must say, the zoysia does look really good and once it starts greening up in the next couple of weeks (this 90+ degree heat we'll have all week actually will help it), I know we'll enjoy it. Next weekend, once we return from Pinehurst, we're going to tackle some of the new flower beds we put in. It's a big undertaking but I know the end result will be worth it.

We're also still making moves on the nursery front. We picked up our dresser and end-table this weekend, and in the next few weekends (after the yardwork gets done), Chad will start painting them. I think they're going to look awesome when he's done. That room is really coming together.

Paint: check
Crib and mattress: check
Crib bedding: check
Glider and ottoman: check
Dresser: check
End table: check
End table lamp: check
Art work: check
Window treatments: check

We still need to buy a few shelves, and perhaps a corner bookshelf (though this can wait), and the room will be complete!

We found a nursery dresser!

Chad isn't too picky about much - but when it comes to purchasing furniture (of the wooden variety) he likes to put his two cents in.

Here are the issues:
1) Chad likes REAL WOOD furniture. No engineered wood, pressed-particle board drawers and backing, etc. If he's going to spend the money on something, he wants it to last for years.
2) Real wood is expensive.
3) Chad wants me to be cost-conscious when it comes to nursery decorating.

So I did some looking. I found some nice looking pieces for a great prices, expect they were made with materials Chad would frown at. I found some real wood pieces that looked great, but they had a price tag Chad would frown at.

This was not going to work out well.

So last week - after I spent lots of time researching options for a dresser for the nursery - I expressed my frustration to him. I asked him if HE was the one in charge of looking for the baby's furniture for a good cost and high quality, where would he start?

He told me to look into unfinished furniture stores - that he wouldn't mind painting the dresser himself if we could get a nicer piece of furniture for less money.

Score!

So we headed to a local unfinished wood store on Sunday and checked out the selection. We found a couple pieces that fit the bill, but I liked this shaker-style one better. Chad liked one that was a bit rounder and had the drawers set on the outside (instead of flush). He asked how we would decide which one since we both liked a separate one a teeny bit better.

I said easy... the person carrying the baby decides. ;) So that's that! There's a cute matching end-table that goes with it, so hopefully Chaddy can go pick up our pieces this weekend and he can start on the finishing!

Eek! Sorry!

I'm sorry I haven't blogged in a few days. It's been really busy on the work- and home-front.

Some quick updates.

1) My "first" mother's day (I can count it right? I do have a baby... it just lives in my stomach for the time being) was very nice.... despite the fact that Chad tried to poison me by bringing me coffee with 2-month old spoiled half-and-half. The fact he felt so bad he looked like he wanted to cry, I decided to let it go and only bring it up about 15 times, as opposed to 115... like I'd normally do. Anyway, since our Sunday school lesson was on "forgiveness" it was perfect example for 2nd and 3rd graders and our kids loved hearing about how Mr. Chad gave Ms. Caroline bad milk that she had to spit out.

Needless to say, I don't think the mister will ever pour a milk product out again without checking the date and smelling it first (helloooo doesn't everyone do that?).

But he made up for the milk gaffe with an a.w.e.s.o.m.e. mother's day gift... this beautiful Quinn glider and ottoman. Our chair and ottoman, which is more of a neutral beige-grey burlap, is set to arrive in 4-6 weeks. I can't wait! I can already envision it with a big cotton blanket hanging on the back of it waiting for many nights of storytime with our little one.

2) And yesterday, I had a check-up appointment which included the glucose challenge test (still awaiting the results.) First of all, while not absolutely undrinkable - that drink is nasty. 10 fl oz of disgustingness. I felt like I drank 15 melted freezer pops (and I don't like freezer pops) at 8:30 in the morning. But I chugged it down as quickly as possible and hopefully won't have to repeat the test!

On a separate note... well, the weight gain finally arrived. After 20 weeks of pregnancy, my +2 lb weight gain is a thing of the past (wah wah wahhhhh), and I managed to put on another +7lbs in the past four weeks. Thankfully though, I'm pretty sure 95% of the weight gain has been in my stomach and not elsewhere. We'll see how long that lasts me. While you feel like having a panic attack to see you've gained 7lbs in 4 weeks, I have to remind myself it is for the sake of the baby's health... and weight gain is a GOOD thing.

I have a brutally honest friend who works in the office next door to mine who promises to tell me the moment she notices I've started waddling instead of walking. So far, so good. But I'll be honest, if I'm ever picking anything up from the floor, I've started giving out an ugly sounding grunt that you honestly cannot control. I never thought I'd see the day where I have to get other people to pick up things I've dropped, but I'm slowly inching in that direction.

All right- time to sign out. Baby J is giving me some good stomach jabs to remind me I need to go chug some water. Happy Tuesday!

J's Nursery: Ohhhh the painting!

So this weekend, we set out to paint J's nursery. I had called my father-in-law ahead of time for his assistance - but told him that according to the instructions given on Project Nursery, it didn't appear to be too hard.

HA! Of course, f-i-l knows better than to listen to me when it comes to how difficult things will or will not be. He (logically) figured that since every person's wall is a different size and shape, there is no "one-fits-all" set of instructions. Besides, he wanted the pattern to be perfectly symmetrical on all sides.

{here's the man behind the magic}

So, father-in-law and Chad sat down with pen, paper, tape measure and a calculator to make it happen.

{having an engineer as a f-i-l once again pays off. oh yeah, and i hate math.}

{the taping begins!}

{i wonder if chaddy would have still married me if he knew ahead of time the work involved}

{MPLT's mama here to help with painting!}

{using a chalkline to make sure it's straight}

{paint over the tape... crossing our fingers this worked!}

{RIP lots of tape}

{woke up at 7 a.m. Sunday to tear off the tape to see if it worked. success!}

{daddy assembling j's crib}

{yay! we did it!}

{nursery before}

{nursery after!}

Can I just say that I love, love, looooooooooooooove it? A million thanks to Melisa @ Project Nursery for sharing her great design with the rest of us! What a great start to the nursery and now I get to find little knick knacks to customize this little room to make it ours.

Next step:
1) Finding a glider + ottoman I love (a la this one) without breaking the bank. Not sure if this will be possible, but I'm determined.
2) Finding a white dresser and matching end table.

Big Night

I started on painting Baby J's nursery last night. I had plans to only tape the accent wall (where we'll be doing our blue and white pattern), and MAYBE cut it with paint on the edges.

But by the time I got going, it seemed silly not to at least paint that wall white - and get one good coat in. I'll probably put another white coat on tonight, and then we'll let it sit until Saturday morning, when we tape over it and then fill it in with the blue.



So, maybe it was the paint fumes or the yummy dinner we had last night, but Baby J was kicking up a storm (and still is this morning.) Soooooo, Daddy Chaddy got to feel his son kick for the first time... and he gave 'em a few good ones that he could feel without me prompting "Did you feel that!"

Good job, J.

I think I finally...

...found bedding.
Thank you Serena & Lily.

Let me tell you: finding crib bedding was a pain in the butt... for me at least.

Here's what I didn't want:

1) Anything "themed." No butterflies. No jungles. No elephants. No alphabet. No sports. No nautical. Here's the problem - 95% of nursery bedding has a theme. This is not to say I don't think it's not great for someone else... but personally, I want simple.simple.simple.

2) Anything that is super gender-specific. This also kinda ties in with the theme thing.

3) At the same time, I didn't want something "boy" that is really girlie. Although I liked the bedding from Land of Nod, even the boy stuff looked like something for a little girl... very floral-y.

With that said, there is very little left over. And, if you buy it from one of the major retailers, chances are you know lots of other people with the same bedding. Again, not that this is a big deal - but I wanted something a little different.

... plain, clean, high-quality material, but with a little pop of something. Which is why I think this Sprout bedding fits the bill - the little green piping and the dots on the crib sheet give it just enough character for me.

J's Nursery: Inspirations

So when I was thinking of a little baby girl, I had more ideas of what I could do decoration-wise.

But let me tell you, it didn't take me but 5 minutes to switch into boy-mode. And I couldn't be more excited.

Project Nursery has some great inspirations.

I think blue, white and green nursery is going to be happening for us. I know I said grey and yellow, but these have changed me otherwise...

Can you get over the cuteness of this room? Love the pattern with the accent wall:


And this Serena & Lily "Blake" bedding is to-die-for. And die is probably the right word because I think Chad would seriously do me bodily harm if I spent $400 on crib bedding without his permission (and trust me, I would NEVER get his permission):



Land of Nod has some cute bedding too:



And this PB Kids bedding is sweet and simple:



How cute are these pictures from Spot on Square!?!



They have a little pig one too that might need to make an appearance... Chad has a soft-spot for swine. ;)

I'm so ready!