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    Nursery!

    Tuesday, August 10, 2010



    The baby's room is nearly done. I suspect we are about 95% done with it and the only things left are very minor additions for decoration and finishing the crib skirt. You can read more about my inspiration here, but my main goals for the room were to give it a light, airy feeling and to not fill it with theme-y clutter. I have to say that I am very much in love with this room and can say with certainty that it has filled every goal of mine. I really hope our baby girl loves it as much as we do.









    Now for the details:

    I made the mobile from the Ten Photo Mobile at Target. The "ornaments" were made out of some girly cardstock that I found at Hobby Lobby. I got the idea for the ornaments from here.


    The crib sheet was purchased from Carousel Designs, which is (in my opinion) the best baby bedding site around. I bought all of Benjamin's bedding from there and really couldn't be happier with the company. The crib skirt is homemade and the fabric (Amy Butler Fresh Ivory Poppies) is from the Cracker Jack Shack. The crib is a hand-me-down from my parents and was not only the crib Benjamin slept in, but also his Momma!

    This artwork is something very much treasured by myself and Mike because it was purchased while we were living in England. It is a print of a painting of one of our favorite spots in Winchester, where we lived. The painting kind of served as inspiration for the room's colors and bicycle-related items. The other wall hanging in the room with the aqua bicycles came from Hobby Lobby waaaay back when we first found out we were pregnant and even before we knew what we were having. I spray painted it aqua to match the crib sheet.

    The items on the shelves are just a rag-tag collection of miscellaneous baby things that will likely change as we get closer to her birth. The one thing on the shelves that was purchased specifically for the room is the "Keep Calm and Ride On" card. I do plan on painting the frame or buying one that matches the room better - someday. The shelves are from IKEA.


    I purchased the birds from Target, but since they only came in black I had to diy them a bit. I spray painted them ivory, which worked sort of okay. They just rest on push pins, so they're very easy to hang, which was nice.

    So that's it. The nursery is done and now you all can enjoy it!


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    Woman Hard at Work

    Thursday, July 29, 2010

    Ever since returning from our vacation, I have been hard at work preparing the nursery for Baby Girl. I've patched up wall holes, painted the inside of the closet, began work on repainting a bookshelf, made many purchases at IKEA and beyond and most recently - began spray painting some cute wall decor. Here is a sneak peak:

    Nursery sneak peakNursery sneak peak

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    Nursery Inspirations

    Wednesday, May 26, 2010

    People have begun to ask what our plans for the baby's nursery are, so I thought I'd share some of my inspirations and ideas here. First of all, we are planning a space that the little lady can grow into as she ages. Painting Benjamin's nursery a bright yellow and adding in nursery rhyme sayings and a big mural of Humpty Dumpty didn't carry him much beyond 2 years old when he moved into his new big boy twin bed, so I didn't want to make that mistake twice. We're going with a neutral creamy yellow for the walls with no plans for a mural at this time.

    Here are a few photos that can give you an idea of where I am going with the wall color (first photo) and the overall feel of the space:




    The look I am going for is one that is not overly feminine, but is also light and airy with the fabrics and brightness of the room. Whenever I try to describe what I want to Mike, he looks at me like I am insane, so hopefully that makes sense to you.

    I put together an inspiration board for the things that I am looking to include in the room. This includes the fabric I purchased for the crib bedding. The floral fabric is going to be the crib skirt and the aqua accent color is the color of the sheets. We purchased and assembled the nursery rocking chair already, but we are still waiting on a replacement slipcover (in the color shown here) since the zipper broke when we were trying to get it on the chair. I already picked up the lamp here at IKEA this weekend and am on a mission to find the mirror. I'd like to get the circular one here, but since I have yet to be able to find one exactly like this one anywhere, I may just end up going with one that is rectangular.


    I am still undecided on the curtains. Benjamin was (and still is!) and awesome awesome sleeper and I am afraid that it was partly because of how dark we kept his nursery. We have a light blocking pull down (ugly!) shade on the window now, which I plan to keep. We also have some pretty dark curtains as well, which keep the light out nicely. However, since my idea for the room is to keep it light and airy during times when the baby is awake, dark curtains wouldn't really achieve that goal. I like the look of sheers, but not the functionality - hence my indecisiveness.

    Two major things that are missing from this board are the wall hanging I bought many months ago and a painting we have in our house from our time in England that we plan to use. Both of these things tie in the "theme" of the room. I hesitate to call it a "theme" because the entire room doesn't revolve around it, but since there are more than a couple of items that do, I guess that is what it can be called. I'll have to snap some photos of the painting and wall hanging, but you can get an idea of what they might involve by looking at one of the prints in the inspiration board above.

    I think that's about it for my ideas. I plan to track our progress of getting both of the children's rooms ready on here, so stay tuned. We are hard at work trying to clean out Benjamin's new room, which is no easy task!

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    Project (nearly) complete

    Monday, October 19, 2009

    Finished (nearly) project

    The living room project is nearly complete. As you can see in the image above, I've finished the painting and decorating, except for on those 2 ugly "vents" above the fireplace. They are not functional, but pretty much impossible for us to remove. We still have not decided what to do with them. We considered covering them with mirrors or photos/paintings, but I don't really want to draw attention to them. Soo, they remain blue - for now.

    I'll have to follow-up tomorrow with more on our weekend...

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    Ch-ch-ch-changes...

    Tuesday, October 13, 2009

    As I said in the previous post, I've been inspired by some home design blogs lately and had decided to redecorate our living room. I have purchased a few items here and there, one of which is this beautiful sun burst wall hanging to which I spray painted and added a mirror.

    Wall hanging that I added a mirror to and spray painted silver
    I haven't gotten around yet to photographing the final result of my efforts because I am not 100% done. I should have final pics on Thursday, so stay tuned! Meanwhile, here is an "in progress" photo of the paint job I did:
    During painting
    It turned out so well, but it was quite a project and it took me pretty much all day on Friday to complete it. I had expected to be done much sooner.

    Mike's brother, Andy, came down on Friday in order to help Mike get started on a home improvement project that he's been planning for quite some time: the heater downstairs. Our basement is considerably colder than the rest of our house, so we have been planning to install an electric baseboard heater. It requires a lot of work and the kind of work that we have not been blessed with a talent for. They were able to begin the project and we will hopefully have a fully functioning heater before the really cold weather hits.

    On Saturday both Mike and Andy met up with Joe and Dan in New Ulm for an Oktoberfest celebration. I guess the guys had heard enough about our fun girls outings and felt like they finally needed one of their own. Well, since the guys were off for the night having fun, some of us girls decided to gather at Mike's parents house for a dinner and sleepover with the little boys. The kids had a great time playing with each other and us adults had a chance to play some games after they went to bed. It was a very fun weekend for us all! Benjamin and I picked up Mike on Sunday and we all treated ourselves to lunch and shopping at IKEA.

    We experienced our first real parent-teacher conferences on Monday and I am happy to report that it was great. Benjamin's teacher, Mark, told us that he is a delight to have in the class and that his adjustment to the Montessori way of doing things is coming along very well. We are looking forward to our next conference, sometime in January, when we'll be able to get a better sense of how he is doing as far as the curriculum is concerned.

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