Joa's Nursery

Can I admit that Joa is 6 weeks old (tomorrow) and her nursery still isn't 'finished?' I just can't figure out what I want to do in the corners and I'm still not sold on the furniture arrangement but third baby means you don't have a lot of time to sit and think about the nursery design so you plop a crib in a room and call it good. Knowing that would likely be the case, I stuck as many special pieces in as I could to make up for my lack of planing and prepping.

Anyway, in case you were checking my blog daily for a nursery post (ha! does anyone still stop by this corner of the web anymore because I rarely do?!), I present to you- Joa's nursery!

We started by moving B to the basement. His brick wall was left behind. I didn't want to take it down but I didn't want it to look so rough and tough so we painted it white to tone it down but keep the texture. I wanted to add some color on the walls but didn't want to on the brick wall and didn't want another wall competing for the accent wall so we slapped it on the ceiling instead! (It's Behr's MAUVE IT. I know it looks purple in that lighting but it's mauve. I promise.) We wanted to move the chandelier out of B's new room (because it didn't exactly scream boy room) so we moved it to the nursery. I didn't want to move Arley out of her crib so we bought a new crib. I searched and searched for the perfect chair. My mom bought this beauty for us (and apparently it was a popular choice because it took MONTHS to arrive). It was worth the wait. From there I couldn't decide if I wanted to go classic traditional, trendy, boho, a little girly or what so I did everything! I stuck a bunch of pieces I loved together and called it good.  Sources below.
Crib. WayfairChair. Baxton Crib skirt/sheet. Bella NotteJOA letters. AnthropologieMacrame above crib. Knitting WondersMacrame mobile above chair. a.moiler.fibreartDresser. (Found on our neighbors curb, painted in Behr Mauve It)Shelf. (Made following this tutorial.)Bench and Bookshelves. IKEAPillow. Rug. and Lamp. Urban Outfitters
Rocking Horse. 

a's nursery

I've been posting a few nursery update pictures on instagram and have gotten a few questions already. I love sharing so here's my obligatory (but because I really want to) nursery post!

(It's an Instagram iPhone pic so the quality is terrible and gets worse when emailed from my phone. It was shot in pano mode so while it looks like B has two heads, it's actually just one that he was moving around while I was shooting.) ;) 


If you checked out B's nursery tour, this probably looks sort of familiar to you. Details about the chair, crib and dresser can all be found over on his post.

Other details:

Paint: Walls: Elegant White (dutch boy). Green dresser:  Valspar Celtic. Green stripe: I used the paint from the dresser and added some white from the walls to tone it down. It ended up being close to Valspar Bahama (though I was going for more of a Valspar Pistachio.. it of course dried darker than I planned).

Flooring: Nebraska Furniture Mart

Crib sheet: Pottery Barn Kids (Did you know you can get these on sale for $9? That's cheaper than Walmart!)

Crib skirt: Target

Curtains: Amazon

Moroccan pouf: Amazon

Night stand: Made by R

Mobile: Amazon

Rug: Amazon (This isn't actually in the pic above yet but should be here this week… it's the WHITE one but not finding it on there right now.)

Knobs on dresser: Amazon (I can't recommend these. We paid $8 for the set so they were super cheap.. which should have been our first clue. They will likely all need to be glued back together as the glass ball comes off the actual knob part very easy. Bummer.) These are adorable but no way I am spending that much for knobs.

Afghan: grandma's

(Can you tell we use Amazon prime? We also got some Amazon gift cards for Christmas. Kind of the perfect gift card for us.) :)  Since we're so Amazon savvy I feel like I need to share this tip with you… start an Amazon cart and ask them to notify you of price drops. It's a guaranteed way to get everything on sale (if you're not in a hurry to get it). And once you order, it arrives in two days so if you are in a hurry, it's quick shipping! We are kind of big fans of their diaper and pantry orders too (on sale of course). 

I'll add details and pictures as we continue to work on it. We've been taking full advantage of R being home from school (and basketball) and he's gotten most of his work done in there already. My goal is to finish some DIY projects for the walls before I hit the exhausted stage again. I've had two weeks of feeling pretty good and we've been super productive during those weeks! (I felt like we had to be since I was miserable the first 25+ weeks.) That said, our house is still a disaster so maybe we haven't been that productive. ;)

To do list:

-Gallery wall/other diy art & pics
-Cover pillow and make monogram
-Find bird hooks for above chest (I saw the cutest ones at junk jubilee and of course am kicking myself for not buying them… I like this one but would spray paint it and no way would I pay that much…. this is an option too.. but I'm still looking)
-Possibly build a storage bench like B's in place of chest (I really wanted to use his old chest in there but the wood is almost identical to the floor so it is almost camouflaged. (Yes, I know I'm the queen of painting anything that doesn't move but I can't bring myself to paint his old chest.. I know I would regret it someday.) The size and function aren't as great as B's either so a matching bench to his would be nice. Maybe.
-Name banner
-Have B paint sticks
-Paint book racks
-Find a closet solution (we added one to the wish list here but we've already hit the nursery budget so looking for a cheaper solution- any ideas?)
-Crate on wheels or African knitting basket for storage
-And here's the bird on twigs mobile I would really love to DIY in fabrics that match her room but know I probably wont. Seriously, how cute though?!
-And whatever else I'm forgetting right now. I'm sure it's something. Or lots of somethings. ;) I THINK all we really have left that we need is to figure out the monitor situation (our old one just started acting crazy so while we had planned to just add a camera to what we had, we're thinking we may need to get something new), a closet solution, diapers and clothes. I'm sure there are lots of baby necessities I'm forgetting all about so please remind me. :)

To be continued….

the afghan

I study the colors of the afghan that for so many years covered the back of her chair. When I was younger, she let me snuggle up in the afghan on special occasion. As I grew, the afghan stayed in its safe place, protecting it from more wear and tear on its already intricately and carefully pieced together parts. As her body started to fail her, she asked me to wrap it around her. I gingerly did so in bittersweet servanthood. She was known for her beautiful quilting but for me, the old and worn afghan holds more memories. 
The colors would look lovely in my daughter's room, I decide. The first (and only) nursery decision to date. I think about raising a daughter and all the time she spent raising me. The secrets we shared and the many, many hours she spent teaching me about life. Growing up, it's likely I spent more time with her than any other single person. She very likely had the biggest influence on me. I can attribute much of me to her. 
My need for memory keeping included. 
One of our secrets was the hundred dollar bills she hid behind my pictures in the photo album she kept by her chair. She said I would be the one to find them as I was spent the most time going through old photos with her over and over again. We worked on family albums together. Meticulously sorting and labeling pictures and joyfully thumbing through the pages of our work. 
I thumb through those same pages today. Thankful for the days we shared but longing for just one more. I have so many questions, especially as I think about becoming a mom to a daughter. I wonder what she would think of all this mess. I feel fear and sadness creep in as the memories start to fade. And then I see her. And then the afghan. In picture after picture draped over chairs and couches, some of which I don't recognize. The earliest of the pictures (as far as I can tell) is nearly half a century old. If this well loved afghan can stand the test of time, surely grandma's lessons will. 

The above post was written several weeks back in the middle of the night. I couldn't sleep and was thumbing through those old albums on our closet floor thinking about grandma. Since then, we've chosen a name for our little girl- a nod towards grandma, and this week we made progress on her room where we hope to incorporate the meaning behind her name…. and the afghan.

(The above pic was taken at night with the iPhone… I'll get in there with the real camera during the daytime soon. Maybe.) ;)

stream of consciousness

B is sleeping (in a bed he says he wants to trade in for a new one because 'this one always gets wet.' yes, we let him take a cup of water to bed). Dakota is sleeping. R is at basketball (shocking I know). My work computer is backed up with downloads and uploads so editing isn't an option (though maybe I shouldn't be stealing the internet bandwidth from those uploads right now…). And while my house is a disaster and in desperate need of a deep cleaning, I'm too exhausted to move right this minute.

Not zombie state exhausted (like I've been most of the last 25 weeks) because my thyroid has finally leveled off (hallelujah!), but still pretty flippin' tired. I started sleep training our littlest this week. Yes, I'm attempting to sleep train a fetus. You can totally laugh but I think (or maybe am wishfully hoping) that it's working. From weeks 20-24 she was up 8pm-midnight and 4am-8am (solid). Since we started 'sleep training' she's been all over the place but has at least been sleeping more than four hours at night. I'll take that for now.

My sleep training consists of trying my hardest to keep her awake during the day. I've been drinking way too much juice during this process. I've also been eating way too many Christmas goodies. Did I mention my glucose test is a very short couple weeks away? Right after Christmas. Isn't that great timing?

Speaking of Christmas, the resident three year old is BEYOND excited for it. He's slightly worried if there's no snow there will be no Christmas but we're working through that. He got a letter in the mail from Santa yesterday and read it no less than 50 times. Each time paraphrasing the letter and saying, "Dear [B], You have been very good. You are on the nice list. And your mommy is too!" One time or two he added in a, "I really like that mountain you made" cause he totally made a mountain pile out of the couch cushions and possibly thought that would get him in trouble. But if Santa approves, no foul, right? Smart thinking, kid. He's counting down the days with is Advent. There's something like 12 days left (is that even possible?).

That means it's been nearly a year since I last gave birth. I'm always reminded when I get my appointment overviews and they say multiparous pregnancy. There's always lots of reminders. Currently, it's the baby bangs growing in. They took about a year with B though I thought breastfeeding may have had something to do it with. Turns out I'm just a late bloomer (uh, bang grower?). I figure once these are in it will be time to start the process over again. Maybe a shaved style is the way to go instead?

I have no transition from talking about shaving my head….

So I made a nursery inspiration board. I had all the ideas floating around in my head for awhile but I finally put them together in a nursery casserole. There's potential there. I feel like it's taking a natural/whimsical theme if that could be a theme. This pic sums it up best I think. (Source.)

I hope to have B make some of these for his sister's room. His should turn out just like that I imagine. ;)

I plan to pull the colors from my grandma's afghan. There's a blog post written on that somewhere but I may have lost it in the inter webs.

As another nod to my grandma, I have high hopes of making a bird mobile. It may be slightly out of my crafting range but we'll see… I'm also loving 'bird' middle names. Wren was the front runner for me but R is a hard sell. I THINK we have decided on another middle name though. It's a name from one of my grandma's and one of his and a nod to another one of my grandma's. I sortofkindof mentioned it in front of his grandma and she'll totally know it was R who didn't want to use it now if we don't. No pressure though, hun. ;)

The first name is set and on a stocking, which is as good as the birth certificate in this house. B will tell you if you ask though no one has been able to decipher what it is his sweet little voice is saying. (Once you know it you will totally kick yourself that you couldn't figure out that's what he was saying.)

Speaking of things he's saying… he is cracking us up these days. Two is awesome but three isn't so bad. He's pretty much the funniest person I know (even more funny than his dad) (no offense, R). Today, R came home quick at lunch time and B said hold on… he pretended his hand was a phone and 'dialed' to make a call. He proceeded to have a conversation with the tickle monster whom he claims told him to tickle his daddy. Every since we called Santa he's been asking to call the tickle monster. I guess he found the number.

Okay, time to go check on the uploads and figure out something to feed the boys. These days we pretty much fend for ourselves. Basketball sack lunches for R, PB sandwiches (or whatever his current obsession is) for B, and whatever I can stomach. Nothing has been sounding good but usually once I start eating it's okay. It's just the figuring out what to try to eat that's rough.

Probably more salted caramel chocolates and juice in the name of sleep training. Wish me luck on that… and the glucose test. ;)

Nursery Update and a Free Printout

Remember this artwork from B's nursery?

I got a little flack from it. Like having something like that made me a less nurturing mom.

But the kid didn't cry much as a baby so he must have read it and thought it was true, right? ;)

He did turn one though. And I keep having this nagging feeling that he isn't a baby anymore. And while I still love the 'crying is for babies... other babies' art, I'm thinking it's time to move one.

I'm not fully ready to spiff his room up into a full blown big kid room, but I have made a couple little updates to it. And the baby art needed to go.


He's totally into things that move right now. He mostly drives his tractor around but he does have a trike in his room that he attempts to ride when we are in there.


So this seemed like an appropriate addition.

It's cute right? (The 'big boy' anything but girly kind of cute of course.)


You can download your free 'they see me rollin' printout here. (Print it as an 8x10 or 8.5x11 at your favorite print company.) :)

Hang it Up

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought the 'Crying is for babies' was cute. It's not actually a poster. I typed it up in photoshop and printed it on 8x10 card stock to fit a frame. I made a few different ones so the frames wouldn't hang empty on the wall. I envision those frames being filled with Baby H pictures soon after his arrival but you know what they say about the carpenter's house... And for those of you that didn't think it was funny, relax, I'm hanging this one up too (as soon as I can decide what colors to print it in):

DIY

I don't know if we are actually 'DIY' type of people or if we are just the 'too cheap to pay someone else to do it' type, but we end up doing a lot of our own little projects around here.

We're in the middle of a big little project right now.... oh you've heard me mention it a time or two? (If you're already bored, just click on outta here.)

R finished laying the flooring in there (a grey wood laminate) and put the trim up (painted deep aqua). We got the crib set up and the next big thing on my list was bedding.

You may have heard me mention the fabric issue before.... my intention was to find some fabrics that I loved to make a crib quilt, choose one of those fabrics for the skirt (and bumper) and put all that together with a nice, matching (store bought) sheet. I quickly ditched the bumper idea (that's a lot of work for something the baby isn't supposed to use anyway). And after searching for days (weeks, really) and not falling in love with any fabrics, I changed the main quilt color to white and realized there was no need to make a white crib skirt (right?). I got online with good intentions of finding a nice (CHEAP) white or grey crib skirt. I figured I could surely find something plain for $15. Then I saw this Dwell crib skirt. It wasn't exactly $15 but I couldn't get it out of my mind. I searched a few more days with no luck and kept coming back to the grey mini dots. I almost made an impulse buy but it was out of stock. I figured that was a good sign. Or was it a challenge? I searched a few other places. After finding it out of stock in online store after online store, there was finally a place that had it ready to ship. I made the fastest 'impulse' (or maybe just stupid?) buy I've made since college and it was on my doorstep two days later.

If you're taking notes, that's now the second baby purchase we've made- after the flooring. (I actually purchased a few little clothing things over the weekend and again yesterday so I've made a few more little purchases now too.... I'm slowly catching up to where you all expected me to be by now...)

I couldn't wait to get it up so when I came up to the trim down and a husband willing to set up the crib, we did it. (There's no mattress yet and we will eventually move the base up, this was just for looks people.)

And that's the way too long, 5 minutes of your life you'll never get back, story of how I gave up a DIY project. Now if I could just hand off this quilt project to my mom, I'll only have 372 more DIY projects to go!

gear update

Thanks so much for all the baby product advice! I love hearing what has worked and hasn't from people.

According to some of your emails/messages, I might not have been real clear on the infant carrier. We have this infant carrier in gray (it's called romantic most places). (It's actually on a truck being shipped to us right now. And there's a good story behind it-My uncle called one night asking about car seats. He had done some research and then found out which one we were wanting. He was wanting to know if it would be okay with us if he got it for us. How awesome is that? We have good family!) (I guess the story is better if you know my uncle).

It comes with one base and after much deliberation, we decided not to purchase a second base for R's car. Baby H will rarely (if ever) need to ride in R's car. I can count on one hand the number of times I've ridden in it this year (just for hauling stuff- hello Junk Bonanza). Other than hauling stuff, R only uses it for work. So we decided against the 2nd base but we have a good friend that offered to loan us theirs once their little guys have outgrown them (which is soon... tear). (We have good friends!)

On a somewhat related note.... my latest struggle in preparing Baby H's space is finding boy fabrics that match the ideas I have in my head for a nursery. I know this will apply to way less of you- but is there anyone that reads this blog that buys fabric online and knows of some great places to get fabrics? I love Amy Butler, Joel Dewberry and the like but I'm not really finding the boy colors I'm wanting (teals, greys, vintage blue, aquas, mustard, etc).

And yes, I'm thankful this is today's struggle. I know there are much bigger things in life to worry about. My brother has already told me how silly it is to spend so much time and effort into designing a space for a child that wont care. (However, he told me within the same hour how he likes my decor and what a good job I do with it so his nursery opinion was discounted.) My heart really aches for my friends struggling today because they long for a baby to hold and I know they couldn't care less about a nursery. My heart is aching today for those whose babies went Home too soon and should be here in their momma's arms today. I know the way our baby's nursery looks is a very minor detail that doesn't matter to most. But it matters to me. As I would sit in our guest room, rocking several other people's babies to sleep, I would pray that God's will would be done in my life. And I would often ask him if that will would someday have me rocking my own baby in a nursery up there. I'm so thankful that He has given us this day to worry about nursery fabrics.

On a related note... I appreciate those of you that chimed in with a resounding 'no' to the wallpaper border debate. R says he wasn't actually wanting it... he just thought that's what you were supposed to do in a nursery. ;)

Love to you today!