The Nursery

After lots of broken promises, I am FINALLY posting these. It's not 100% finished, but close enough that I feel comfortable revealing it! I'll try to do a breakdown of the things in the room in case you're curious.

A few before pictures. As a disclaimer: We were using this as our "closet" because we were preparing to fix our closet. Hence the mess! Well, let's be honest, this was always our "junk room".


And now, here it is as a nursery:

A peek in from the doorway. I am SO glad we got the rug in a bigger size. The room was an addition at some point and they apparently didn't care about the wooden floor in there because it is the WORST flooring job in the world. Plus, it will be great for her to have carpet to play on since most of our house had wooden floors.


Here is a before of the smaller dresser. This picture actually makes it look better than it was. It was really chipped and those gold knobs had to go!
And here is the dresser now!


The bedding is completely done, except I need to bind the edges of the quilt. I loved making it and it was much easier than I expected!

The bookshelf before:

And after:
Most of the items on the bookshelf are from a box of my things from growing up that my Dad brought up to us. (My Mom is jealous right now reading this, because she has about 8 boxes of stuff she wishes she could bestow upon us!)

The closet Adam and my Dad built. I want to put little stuffed animals on the top with their legs dangling. I just have to actually get some little creatures first!


Next to the squirrel print I'll hang the cute wooden clock once I get around to ordering it.

Now for the details:

The $5 lamp before (well in progress anyway):
And after:



This cat came from our trip to Mexico and the plate was a gift from my Mom from The Children's Place.

LOVE the little boots from Peekaboo Monkey.

I printed various "r's" on cardstock and painted some wooden frames I had on hand.

Here is the vintage ebay light after it has been spray painted brown and given a new chain and wire. I love this light!

A cute little dress and my Snoopy apron from my own childhood. Hooks are from Pier One.

The art piece above the crib. I got this idea from this post on Design Sponge. It's made from toilet paper/paper towel rolls. There is always the worry about hanging something above the crib in case it falls...well this is perfect. I think a blanket would be heavier! I'm thinking I'm going to add even more to it. I love the look.

Wooden blocks I made that spell out her name.

My best friend Mary knitted this blanket as a wedding gift. I think it is one of the coolest presents I have ever gotten. I know it took her forever and I'm so happy that it has a perfect home in this room!

Print on the left from Heather and her husband's Etsy shop and the print on the right was actually part of my baby shower invite. My friend Melanie designed it. There will be 2 smaller prints underneath the brown frame that I have yet to put up.

Anthropologie knobs.

My friend Jess made this magnet board for me as a shower gift. She had asked me before the shower for my extra fabric and she surprised me by using it on the board. It looks great!

All but one of these books are from my childhood. Can you tell my favorite color was always green?

And a final breakdown with the costs (I always like to see the breakdown on sites like YoungHouseLove so I thought I would do the same). When I would see nurseries on OhDeeDoh, I couldn't believe how much some of them cost. Under $1000 was considered budget friendly...And now I know why! It really can be an expensive little room. It was my goal to spend under $1000 and we did it! We could've saved even more if we had gone with a used crib, but I fell in love with the one we got. Everything else I think was a pretty good deal. It just adds up so quickly!

Crib: Babyletto Modo Crib $300 (on sale + free shipping)
Dressers: Refinished KSL dresser set $100 (it also came with a cool standing mirror)
Rocker: Dorel Rocker w/ Slipcover $230
Dresser Knobs: Anthropologie $48 (total splurge, but I love them)
Lamp: Craigslist find $5
Ceiling Light: ebay $30
Pillows: Green, Tan and Brown $5 from Burlington Coat and Green Pattern from Target $5 (both on sale)
Rug: Pottery Barn $149 (after using gift cards)
Hooks: Pier One $12
Frames: All were frames we already owned.
Art: Kantan Designs Pray Print $5 (on sale), Owl Print by MMBurk (gift), Squirrel print from CacheCache $2.50
Curtains: Target $18 (I got one of the panels on sale because the packaging was ripped)
Paint: Glidden Celery Sticks $30
Fabric: $60 Various Etsy/Local Shops

Total: $999.50
Just barely under! And there you have it!

Is This Where I Turn Into A Mommy Blogger?!

I can't believe I'm posting this, BUT I think it's too great of a deal to not share for all you moms with kids in diapers. Currently online Target is having a diaper/wipes/baby toiletries sale. If you buy 3 products you get 10% off, and 4 or more you get 15% off. Plus, here's a code for you to get an extra 10% off: URTYJLI8. Additionally, they're "Up" brand diapers are on sale for $6.49 for a 56 ct. box. I've heard good and bad about the brand, but for about $5 with the discounts, I figure I'll give them a shot. And to top it all off? Free shipping. 5 boxes of diapers, 1 box of 512 wipes all for $37.55. Not bad at all!

And since it's semi-related. Here I am, full term, at 37 weeks. Little girl is free to come at any time! (You can sneak a peek behind me at the nursery.) Nursery reveal...TOMORROW! Woohoo!

Pinstripe and Plaid

Most of you probably know Adam is finishing up his degree in Business. He decided last semester that his emphasis would be Entrepreneurship. He is currently in a class where his first assignment is to start a business. His grade for this assignment depends upon how much he makes compared to his classmates. Now, as someone with a teaching degree, I am cringing inside just typing that. There are soooo many reasons why I think that is absurd. (But don't even get me started on some of his other professors...like his HR professor that has each student create a blog and write an "emotional response" after each chapter in the textbook. Yes I said textbook. Textbook?! Seriously? Since when is the purpose of a textbook to elicit an emotional response? Since NEVER.) Anyway, I digress....

When thinking about what to do, he brainstormed ideas for a business that he and I would both enjoy and that we could continue beyond the few weeks of this project. One of Adam's favorite presents from Christmas was a few pairs of handmade cufflinks that I made. If you know Adam, you know he loves cufflinks. He wears them to church on Sunday and several times during the week with a shirt and jeans. So, this seemed like the perfect venture for us.

We came up with Pinstripe and Plaid...Our own little Etsy with handmade cufflinks. So, since it is approaching Valentine's Day, I thought I would share these on the blog in case you have a loved one who might like something like this! There are tons of different colors and patterns to choose from and we will be updating our shop soon with even more!


We have twill cufflinks in just about every color!


And tons in cool patterns like these!

Bathroom Inspiration Board

We are literally sooo close to finishing up the nursery (have you heard that same thing before?). But seriously, almost done! We are putting on all of the final touches and are waiting on our rug!

Now, we're on to our next project. I really didn't think we would tackle sprucing up our "master bath", but we've had some amazing deals fall into our hands, so I couldn't resist. I've been dreaming of fixing it up for quite some time and I'm excited that it's really happening. The major eye sore in the bathroom is the sink area. The sink's pipes are all exposed and there is no vanity. The mirror is blah and the light, ugh, I hate that light with a passion (it doesn't help that it's falling out of the wall). It's pretty much the only room we haven't painted so it's still that strange green color.

Some ugly before pictures:

(I swear I just cleaned my mirror!)

Here is an inspiration board with a breakdown of the expected costs:



1. The bathroom already has trim running at about a quarter of the way up the wall. We've decided to paint the top portion white (with leftover paint we already have) and the lower portion a light blue/green color called Water Mark from Behr. Coral will be our accent color. I had been looking at the coral fabric pictured online. The cheapest I found it was for $15 a yard. On a recent stop to Joann's, I found the exact fabric on clearance. I got 2.5 yards for $5!
Paint: $20
Fabric:$5

2. I'll be making 3 art prints to go above our towel rod. I already have extra frames I can use and I'll just print them at home.
Art: FREE

3. I found these coral tea light holders and coral decor piece on Amazon. We happen to have a gift card to Amazon (thanks Comcast).
Accessories: FREE

4. We already have nice white towels and an accent towel in the blue/green color. I want to order a coral print hand towel from Pottery Barn. We also have a gift card for Pottery Barn, so again, no cost!
Towels: $0

5. I found this light on Overstock for only $39.99. We have a code for free shipping. It's not the most exciting light ever, but it will look nice and get the job done. Plus anything is better than the hideous gold fixture currently falling off my wall.
Lighting: $39.99

6. A new mirror! The one we have right now, besides being boring, is very wide. Which as you may guess, makes you look very wide. Which isn't that fun when you're pregnant. I avoid that mirror like the plague. We lucked out at Home Depot and found a mirror for $19, yes really $19. All it needs is some white paint to disguise its fake gold rustic color.
Mirror: $19

7. Again, cashing in on our Amazon gift card, I found this faucet for $44.95 plus free shipping.
Faucet: $0

8. Now, HERE is the most exciting part, for us at least. Our bathroom is a weird T-shape. The sink is stuck at the top of the "T" in between 2 doors. This means that there is not a lot of room for a vanity or sink, without have to shimmy around it. Well, Home Depot had a vanity + sink combo that is the PERFECT size. It is not very deep, so we won't have to shimmy anymore, but the sink part is wider and actually has space for us to place things. And the best part of it all, it was on sale for $70! I can't find a picture of the one we actually bought, but the one pictured is very close, except our sink is more round and has more room on it. The one pictured is actually listed on Home Depot for over $400! Yikes! I'll be using the coral fabric to make a little curtain to hide the bottom shelf.
Vanity/Sink Combo: $70!!!

9. We already own the rugs, shower curtain and other bath accessories in the right colors so again, we're not spending money.
Other Accessories: $0.

Estimated Total Cost: $153.99

Pretty good I think, seeing as a vanity alone is usually more than that!

Weekend Sale

DownEast Basics is having a great sale. All of their sale items are an extra 50% off. The sale lasts through the 18th, but hurry before all the sizes get snatched up! Enter the code FIFTYN2 to receive the discount.

I love this dress. I can't wait to have a waist again so I can wear cute dresses like this! Can you believe it's only $17?!


I love this jacket too. They have it in a fun olive color. Only $9.99!

35

I will be 36 weeks on Sunday. I can't believe in one more week I will be full term. This pregnancy has gone so fast. I have been really lucky and have really enjoyed being pregnant. I'm not uncomfortable, I sleep through the night (I've never even gotten up for the bathroom!) and I still feel great. I know that this isn't normal, so believe me, I have not been taking this for granted. We feel so lucky to have this experience and can't wait for our little girl to come!

I thought she would start to move less since she is running out of room, but she is sooo squirmy these days. ALL day long! But it's been fun because Adam is able to "interact" with her more now. He can really feel her kicking and moving all around.

Well, this is a terrible picture, but I don't feel like attempting at another. Plus Adam is gone, so I had to take it myself. Next week we'll hope for a better pic. I think she has changed positions or something because I lost my belly! Well, it's still there, but I just looked back at the picture from New Year's and there seems to be quite a difference!

Nursery Inspiration Board

We are so close to finishing up the nursery. I think I've said that we were going to finish it for the past 3 weeks, but that's okay. Hopefully by next week I can reveal it, in all it's glory! For now, here is a quick peek at my inspiration board. We're going for a mix of modern and vintage, which shouldn't surprise most of you, since that's pretty much the theme of my whole house.

1. I finally decided on a rocker. Thanks for all the comments and emails with your suggestions. I actually went with one that wasn't even on my list. But, it looks really similar to the beautiful green one at a wayyyy better price. And it has pretty good reviews. It should be here this week!

2. I love this Squirrel clock. I have another clock from this same Etsy seller in my kitchen. Hopefully I'll order it soon! You can also see the wall color. A nice fresh green. One wall will have the green and white stripes, as pictured.

3. This is my vintage ceiling light from Ebay. The picture above is actually a before picture. We spray painted the wire brown and put a new cord and chain on it. And now we have a brand new light fixture for under $40. I don't think even Ikea can beat that price!

4. We went with the Babyletto Moda crib. I love the look and love that it converts to a bed as well.

5. If you can see the number 5, it's on the rug. I have loved that Bridget rug ever since it came out, but it has been off of their website for quite some time. We originally ordered a different rug but I wasn't sold on it. I randomly checked Pottery Barn the other day and saw that they had a 9x12 in stock. That would be way too big for the room, but it inspired me to call and see if they could locate a smaller size anywhere else. After much searching, the lady came through for me and I should get my rug today or tomorrow!

6. This is a picture of the main fabric for her bedding. It's My Folklore-Mushroom Forest Chocolate. I actually bought it about a month after we were married. I knew that this was what I would want for a little girl, and I knew it might be gone by the time we had her (and it is!). So we've pretty much had bedding and a name picked out for a little girl since right after we were married. I have a total of about 8 coordinating fabrics, along with the one in the picture that I'm using. I am putting the finishing touches on the blanket/quilt and will hopefully whip up the bumper and crib skirt in a day or two.

7. I've seen this idea around the blogosphere and knew I had to use it in our room. I think it's hard to tell in the picture, but they are bookshelves made from gutters, like the ones on the outside of a house. I'm a huge fan of forward facing books, and this is a perfect way to get the look, on the cheap. And it helps that we randomly have a new piece of white gutter just sitting in our basement, so it's really on the free for us. Adam is going to cut it down and mount it in the room, down at a kids level. That dresser is actually NOT our dresser, but we stripped and painted a dresser set brown and the pieces are finally finished!

8. Here is just one art print for her walls. I wanted to pull a few squirrels from the fabric into the room, but nothing too themey. In fact, it will probably just be the clock and the art print. I think the print is actually meant for scrapbooking or something of the sort?! It only cost $2.50 for the digital file. As for the rest of the art in the room, I'm going to make and print some pieces myself.

And there you have it. I can't wait until I'm able to post pictures with it finished! I just hope it all comes together like I'm imagining it will.

New Favorites

, GClean, simple and fresh. I like. Next up...this blog!

Over the Break...

We have had a really awesome break. We had a great Christmas at our house. We missed our families, but it was really nice to be able to relax and enjoy the morning. I (of course) love everything Adam got me. Adam is an annoyingly good gift giver. He always knows JUST what I would want or like. I mean, what husband can pick out clothes for you that a)fit and b)you love?! He just knows what I like all too well. It's great for me but at the same time, makes me feel a lot of pressure to get him really thoughtful presents. Not that Adam would care what I got him, BUT I always want to try to be as thoughtful as he is. I think I did a great job this year in this department. I'll blog my favorite present I made for him later this week! Later in the day, we had some friends who were here in Provo over for dinner and played a great round of Clue. Did you know they have revamped the old Clue game?! Neither did we...

The rest of this break has been spent hanging out with each other, playing Super Mario Bros. on the Wii and doing projects around the house. The biggest one we've completed has been a complete renovation of the bathroom in our upstairs rental apartment. If you didn't know, at some point the attic of this house was turned into a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom apartment. It has it's own separate entrance, which is great. We lucked out in that most of our house was updated, however, the upstairs...not so much. It has been in need of some definite help. Here are the before pictures of the nasty bathroom:

Notice the dated flooring and the dresser in the wall. It's nice for extra storage but sticks out like a sore thumb painted that atrocious color. You can also see the "tiles" that are falling off of the wall. They are actually not even real tile. In fact, we have NO idea what they're made out of.

No comment.

Gross. Notice that half of that drawer is missing.

Really, anything we could do to this bathroom would be a huge improvement. We ended up putting in new sub-floor, vinyl flooring, taking down the tiles, painting, putting in a new vanity and storage cupboard, new lighting and resurfacing the tub. And be we, I mean Adam. All by himself. He is seriously so amazing! My little handyman...Here are the awesome after shots.




Here you can get a glimpse of the dresser painted with new hardware. Down by the window is where the toilet and vanity reside. It's painted a nice fresh white and the tile is gone!

The new extra storage cupboard.

New medicine cabinet and lights.

New sink and vanity.

Adam's flawless flooring job! I should've taken a before/after picture of the bathtub as well, because resurfacing a tub does wonders for it's appearance. I didn't even know you could do such a thing before tackling this project!

And for those of you who only read my blog to see my expanding stomach, here is a picture from New Year's. Adam's description of my stomach these days is that it's very "roundy".