Thinking About Nursery #2

{Oh yes...thinking being the key word here, because nothing has really happened thus far, which I'm starting to freak out a little bit about.}

A few people have asked what our plans are for Baby #2 once she arrives--will she be sharing a room with Lizzy? Sleeping in with us? In her own room? So here's the deal. We have a 3 bedroom house, the third bedroom of which currently holds the elliptical, a giant bookshelf of westerns, and...a bunch of junk that has no other home. Although the baby will probably sleep in the pack and play in our room for a few months, we are still planning to make the 3rd bedroom into a nursery for two reasons: (1) Lizzy really wasn't sleeping through the night without occasional wakeups until she was about a year. I see no reason to mess with both of their sleep during the newborn/4 month wakeful/teething stages, and really prefer that they sleep in separate rooms in the beginning if that's a possibility and (2) The bed rooms in our house are very small, and it would literally mean that nothing besides the beds would fit in the room.

So, two rooms initially...but that doesn't mean that they won't be sharing a room once Baby #2 is a bit older, and the 3rd room may be an exercise/playroom...and/or possibly even a baby boy nursery (way way way) down the road. Which is why I'm having a bit of a hard time deciding what to do with the room.

Do I go bold with the wall color like I love, only to likely have to re-paint not too far down the road? Or do I go more neutral on the wall color, and then bring in bright pops of color with the furniture, bedding, and accessories? And if I do go bold on the walls, which color?!

Source: hopefulthreads.blogspot.com via Meredith on Pinterest

This is the first fabric that we picked for the quilt, and is kind of inspiring the color scheme for the room. The pink reads a bit more red in this photo than pink, but it's pink. Bright pink. Other fabrics also have a bright yellow, and I think the pink, orange, and yellow are going to be the main colors in the room, with just little accents of the green and turquoise. But again, I haven't decided whether or not to do a bright on the wall, or a tan-ish.

If I go bright, my gut says to go with orange...even though it doesn't seem to be typical for a girl nursery, I have seen some orange nurseries that I really like and would work with our color scheme, like this one:

Source: projectnursery.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Plus, orange could work for a boy nursery down the road as well.  BUT, I don't just love the color orange, and I know that finding the right shade is probably going to be hard, so I'm a big gun-shy and wondering if the orange wouldn't be better suited for a piece of furniture, like the wooden rocking chair we're repainting.

Because even if we went more neutral on the wall, I think I could still probably bring in the punchy pops of color that I love, like in these inspiration photos:

Source: projectnursery.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Source: madebygirl.blogspot.jp via Meredith on Pinterest

Source: kristineldridge.com via Meredith on Pinterest

So basically, I have no idea. I'd love to hear what you all think!

The only thing I do know? I love this mobile. ADORE IT.

Source: gallery.apartmenttherapy.com via Meredith on Pinterest

Evolution of a Nursery

A few weeks ago, my brother was given a king sized bed, so he and my parents were getting rid of his twin mattress. Justin and I quickly nabbed it, and it's been sitting in our garage ever since. We'd been talking about when to transition Lizzy out of her crib, and onto a twin mattress on the floor (for now) but thought that maybe we'd wait until she actually climbed out. Also, we didn't really know where we'd store the crib in the meantime since we're working on cleaning out our garage and spare bedroom.

And then a week or so ago, Kaitlin called to ask if I knew anyone that they could borrow a crib from while they are staying here. And it was a no-brainer--we'd been trying to figure out when to transition Lizzy, and decided that it just made sense for us to move Lizzy and let them use her old crib.

So, over the weekend, we broke down her crib and hauled in the twin sized bed.

(For now, we just got her a set of sheets that she picked out, and she uses a spare comforter. 

Eventually, she'll get her own, I'm just waiting for a sale!)

The dresser went into the closet to allow for a little more play room, since it's a pretty small room to begin with.

So far, Lizzy has done remarkably well. It's also nice for me to be able to lay down in bed with her if she's having a rough day or night! I have to admit though--I don't usually get all sad and weepy about Lizzy growing up, but I *was* a little sad when we were taking down her crib! It was the first time I honestly found myself missing the newborn stage just a little bit.

Shameless Self-Promotion

Check out my guest blog over on The Domestic Wannabe to read all about my day-to-day life as a new mom, of course, new pictures of Lizzy are included!

Do you all remember the long design process where I fretted over every little thing in Lizzy's nursery? You all were such great help and offered excellent advice. Between my ideas, your advice, Justin's labor, and a lot of help from friends and family, we ended up with a non-traditional nursery that we LOVE.

I love that the walls aren't pink. I love that Lizzy has an awesome tree mural painted by her amazing Aunt Renee that will hopefully grow with her. I love that Lizzy's bedding was made by Lizzy's Grandma Joyce. I love that her dresser was Justin's growing up (which we refinished). I love that in a moment of craftiness, I made some DIY wall art.

In all honesty, Lizzy's nursery was the first time that I was able to take an idea (or a "DESIGN CONCEPT" as I'm sure they'd say on design star) and actually implement it in real life. And we did it on budget {read all about the total cost here} And I am so proud of the nursery. I hope that you all like it too.

If you do, I hope that you'll vote for Lizzy's Nursery in The Bump's Real Nursery Contest. The grand prize is a family vacation to one of the Beaches resorts in Jamaica. I cannot even begin to explain how incredible that vacation would be.


CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR LIZZY'S NURSERY

Enjoy the Humor of the Situation....

Bonus points for anyone who can tell me where the title of this post comes from!

Anyway, I'm excited that I can now add this button to the blog:



Our Nursery was featured on Roeshel's DIY Show Off blog today! Seriously?! I know that I've said it before, but I was just NOT a crafty person or talented in decorating prior to being pregnant...so the fact that not only did the nursery turn out how I thought (thanks to lots of help from Renee and Justin), but that other people actually like it  [they like me, they really like me!], still kind of boggles my mind.

Anyway, here's the funny part of the whole deal--we rushed and rushed to get the nursery finished before Lizzy arrived....but since she was born, I think she's spent all of a half hour in the nursery, lol! I will say that on the few occasions when I've laid her in the crib, she's quieted right down and just looks at everything. Maybe she likes the contrast between the white crib and the blue walls?

So yeah, Lizzy hasn't used the nursery, and it's become a holding tank for all the gear that we've been given since she was born....I really need to find a way to organize it all!

Nursery Reveal

So, the nursery is just about done! We're still missing a few last minute things like a garbage can, and the quilt that will go with the bedding--my mom and I decided that since the gender is a little bit up in the air, we would wait until the little one has arrived before spending all that time making a quilt! Other than that, we have just a few last-minute touch-ups to do, like to finish the trim by the closet, and install some thingy to keep the closet doors from swinging at the bottom.

First, here's a picture of what the room basically looked like before...it was a storage room for all our junk, and had the builder's white walls and tan carpet:
And AFTER:

So, here's a break-down of the room, and where things came from:
-Paint Color: Forgotten Secret (Ace Hardware)
-Floors: Costco Laminate in Antique Hickory (Leftover from rest of the house)
-Crib: Baby Mod Cadence Crib from Wal-Mart-$224
-Glider: Un-upholstered Dorel Glider from Wal-Mart- $170
-Glider Slipcover: Wal-Mart- $50
-Rug: Target- $65
-Dresser: Free (Justin's growing up), Repainted with no sand primer and white enamel.
-Changing Pad/Cover: $35 total from Amazon
-Curtains: Wal-Mart $17
-Toy Chest (which is currently storing blankets): Target- $50
-Wall Art: Less than $20 for all 4 (DIY)
-Wall Mural: Painted by Renee
-Sheets/Bedskirt: Made by Mere's Mom
-Other Misc Decorations: Mere's growing up

So, I know some of you were asking if our nursery plan changed much when we found out that there was a chance it might be a boy after all. And the short answer is not really, because most of the pink stuff came in terms of linens (curtains, changing pad slipcover, bed skirt, glider cover), most of which we already had, or could be dyed/replaced without breaking the bank. The only thing that wasn't a linen was the DIY wall art, which would be fairly easy to re-create using different colors. No biggie.

Overall, I am THRILLED with how it turned out. It is really, really close to what I imagined in my head, and I felt like we did it without breaking the bank! A *huge* thanks goes out to both Renee and my mom for helping bring those ideas to life (I can't wait to see it once the quilt is in there too!).

More Nursery Wall Art

So...if Justin cooperates with me, I may finally be able to take pictures of the pretty-much-finished nursery this weekend. In the meantime, I was feeling like the wall with the DIY Bird Wall-Art was looking pretty sparse, but I didn't really want to spend anything on more wall-art. I had an idea come to me, but now I'm not sure whether I like it.

Some of you might remember that J and I made a playlist for Lizard at one point. One of the songs on the playlist was "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley. That song was also my high school class' graduation song, and for a worry-wart like me, it's kind of my soundtrack. So, I whipped these up in Photoshop and printed them out on the laser printer, and then I was planning to frame them. The birds are currently hung sort of diagonally from each other, so I have a few ideas on how to hang all four of them together. Justin says that he'd have to see them hung...he isn't quite sold.

Number 1:
Number 2:

What do you think? Is that a silly idea for nursery wall art? Do you have a better inexpensive DIY idea for me?

Monday Snippets

• I am eating Grandma's Peach-Almond Pie for breakfast. It is delicious. And PS- it's what I've listed over at NewlyWoodwards for the Dare to DIY challenge of the week, which was cookies/bars/cakes. I'm a rebel and threw in a pie.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I also plan to try Starbucks' Cream Brulee Latte today. It had better be worth the hype and the giving up of my much-loved Peppermint Mocha.
  
• The nursery is so close to being done that I can almost taste it! I just have to get Justin to re-arrange some of the furniture. He arranged it in what would admittedly be the most functional way, but it just looks funny that way. I may hold off on the big reveal until after my shower on the 19th, because I'm sure there will be more to add then.
• The movie 2012 was better than I expected. It was actually quite good--just loooooong.
  
• For the past couple of weeks, my cat has been shunning me. Seriously, she wouldn't come near me. Over the weekend however, she's been attached to my side and wants to be held 24/7. This freaked me out, because I've now heard from several people that their cats did this right before they went into labor, and I am not ready to go into labor yet!
  
• I was up from 12:30am-1:30am last night. Why? Inexplicably, doing a kick count. Don't ask.
  
• But since you're wondering, I have been having incredible anxiety again lately. It's totally irrational anxiety, usually revolving around our house not being clean. So then I don't sleep, which means that when it comes time to actually clean our house, I'm delirious and exhausted, which means nothing really gets done. Vicious cycle. I want to pick up Max Lucado's new book Fearless. I have a feeling it might help calm me down and conk me out in the middle of the night.
  
• Leg cramp on the couch = Kicking laptop off the couch = Cracked laptop screen. You might recall that it was already cracked. Now it's really cracked. Suck. But my fantastic dad is looking to see if he can find a replacement screen on eBay. Here's hoping.
  
• Our Christmas shopping and December birthday shopping is just about done!
  

DIY Nursery Wall Art

So, as many of you are well aware, the main colors of the nursery are turquoise and white, with pink accents throughout. I've been trying to think of a way to pull more pink into the room, and ALSO, I've been trying to think of something to put on the wall across from the tree mural, which was completely blank.

I would not call myself a crafty person by any means, but I had an idea for some DIY wall art that I thought would be simple enough even for me. I actually like how they turned out, but you'll have to use your imagination a bit, because I can't seem to get a good picture depicting the color--the background color is a bright fuchsia pink. The white actually has a bit of a shimmer to it.



I know it's not earth shattering, and it's not perfect, but I hope that it will reference all the colors in the room nicely, and it really was super easy--I bought 5 pieces of scrapbook paper, and two 12x 12 white frames. In total, I think it cost $16. Then, I found a silhouette of a bird online, printed it off, and traced it onto the scrapbook paper. I used a glue stick to glue it all together. The end!

Pregnancy Post: Week 30

Although I look stoned in this picture, I assure you, I'm not!

Well, 30 weeks already. That's crazy talk. Seriously. Especially when I think about the fact that almost every weekend between now and mid-December is booked up with stuff to do! I know that with Thanksgiving and then Christmas, these last 10 weeks are going to fly by.

The Lizard now weighs approximately 3 pounds, and I have a feeling she's in a somewhat transverse position, because I feel most movement on the sides of my tummy...AND in my ribs. It isn't too bad most of the time, except when she hits the one rib that I fractured rowing. That HURTS. I have also been having almost non-stop back spasms, which has made things a little difficult this week. There is just no comfortable position to be in.

What else...we have our childbirth class/hospital tour all weekend. I'm hoping that it's actually helpful. At least the sheet specifically says to show up in your pajamas or work-out clothes. Heck yes I will!

Speaking of comfy clothes, I picked up a pair of dress pants at Motherhood today that I actually like and are long enough (though, I'm going to see if my mom can let out the hem even further). Motherhood only carries two styles of pants in 34 inch inseam. For any other tall girls, here's a word to the wise for the future--the twill dress pants are CRAP. They fit funny, wrinkle easily, and just aren't very flattering. Today, I picked up the bi-stretch pants and they are much better, and actually feel like pajamas. I am thinking about picking up the gray pair as well. [Still, please bring back your maternity pants in extra-long length Gap! I hate being stuck in flats all the time. Plus, it makes my back spasm more!]

Not much progress in terms of the nursery, except we have a coat of primer on the dresser that used to be Justin's:

I am hoping to get the first coat of paint on tonight. I'm doing the first coat with a brush to see if we can get away with using a brush, or if we need to borrow the paint sprayer. It cracked me up to prime it, because I kept coming across all the things Justin and his sister had written on or carved into the dresser. I remember my brother carving into all the furniture, but I don't remember doing it myself!

In other news, Justin and I have started compiling a list of songs for a CD/playlist for Lizzy. We wanted to make a CD of non-kid songs that we want her to know or be sung. Some of them are just our personal favorites, some have significance in our relationship, etc. Here's some of the list so far:

Somewhere Over The Rainbow- sung by Israel Kamakawiwoʻole
Love Without End, Amen- by George Strait
Que Sera, Sera- sung by Pink Martini
Gracie- by Ben Folds
Three Little Birds- by Bob Marley
Wonderwall- by Oasis
Then- by Brad Paisley
If I Had A Million Dollars- by Barenaked Ladies
Everlong (Acoustic)- by Foo Fighters
Baby Don't You Cry- Quincy Coleman
Kristine's Lullaby- Jodi Shaw

When we were talking kids songs, I was *shocked* that Justin didn't know who Raffi was! I wonder if he didn't recognize the name, but would recognize the songs?

PS- Right now, it's 4:44pm on 11/4 :) Of course, you won't see this post until tomorrow, but I thought it was fun!

Pregnancy Post: Week 29

Holy cow, I can't believe that I'm 29 weeks already! Assuming I go to 40 weeks, I now have 77 days of pregnancy left. Even better, I officially have 41 or fewer days of work left!

Lizard is now approximately the size of a butternut squash (or about 2 and a half pounds and 15 inches long). This week, her bones are developing, which may explain the fact that I seem to be craving milk, cheese, and other things containing lots of calcium. Lizard's spleen has also begun to work this week. I still don't really know what a spleen does, but it's undoubtedly important somehow!

As far as I go, I'm tired all the time, crying all the time, have heartburn all the time, I feel like my bump is oddly shaped, constipated, and my ribs hurt all the time. Soon, I might need Justin to help push me up off the couch. It's not pretty, but it's the truth folks! Still, oddly, it's almost like it just becomes the new normal. I'm not really even all that grumpy about it...it just is what it is.

I guess the bottom line is that I'm just happy that she's still baking away, and kicking away. We had a case at work this week with a baby who was born at 24 weeks gestation, and is doing okay, but is obviously very fragile and still in the NICU. It boggles my mind to think that this would translate into me giving birth over a month ago. Holy manoley.

This afternoon, I have to do the one-hour glucose test. Cross your fingers and say a little prayer that I pass! Also, I don't even want to know how much I weigh now!

I'm also trying to get a little issue with my FSA worked out at work. My boss and I have a different understanding of how the flex spending accounts work--essentially, since our plan year runs from mid-calendar year to mid-calendar year, I have already used more of my flex money than I have contributed, or will contribute by the time I leave in December. She believes I will owe the company the difference between what I have used ans what I have contributed. My understanding is that there is a risk to both the employee and the employer with a FSA--i.e. if I don't use all the $, the employer gets it. If I'm laid off, I am no longer able to use those funds. BUT, if I leave the company having used more than I contributed, I'm not liable for what I didn't actually contribute. For what it's worth, we haven't continued to use the flex funds once I said I wouldn't be returning...though I do believe that legally, we could. Anyway, all the research I've done backs up my opinion, but I'm still waiting for my boss to give the final ruling.

In other news, the nursery is coming along spectacularly! I'm not going to post anything other than detail pics until we're done, but I had to share the latest nursery development, which is that my mom finished the bedskirt and fitted sheet for the crib:

I am LOVING how they work with what we've got going on in the rest of the room so far. And I really, really love how the majority of the nursery is either hand-made, or hand-me-downs. I can't wait to tell Lizard all about the family members who helped with her room :)

Pregnancy Post: Week 28

Holy cow y'all. At 15 weeks, I was pretty darn skinny! If you would have asked me whether or not I thought I was skinny pre-pregnancy, I would have told you HELL NO. And at 15 weeks, I felt like my baby bump was totally obvious to everyone. Now, I can't help but laugh! Nothing like pregnancy to make you feel thin!

This week, Lizard is between 2-3 pounds. When I was at the doctor the other day (GP, not the OB), she told me that Lizard is "essentially done cooking" and is now just "plumping up". Speaking of Lizard, many of our family members and church ladies are expressing their dislike for the nickname "Lizard." I tell them that we like that nick-name, but if they don't, they're welcome to call her Liz or Lizzy--not Liza, or Ella, or Ellie, or Beth. I don't understand those being nicknames for Elizabeth (except for Beth, but if I wanted her to be named Beth, I would have named her Beth!), but that's another story.

In other news:
-The nursery is coming along...I just need ideas for what, if anything to do on the walls that don't have the mural. Floating shelves? Frames with wall art?

-Back pain is near constant.

-Did I mention that last Friday the waiter asked me whether I was pregnant or "just really liked beer"? Justin says that in retrospect, he should have looked at me and loudly said, "YOU'RE PREGNANT?! When were you going to tell me?!" I have to admit though, as far as pregnancy comments go, that one is probably the funniest and most unique. The waiter is just lucky that I was in a good mood that day. Any other day, and I just as easily could have cried.

-Sweet Justin told me he's been praying hard that I have a good night's sleep, and for the first time in months, I slept for more than 3 hours at a time last night. Speaking of last night, I remember rolling over and feeling this weird kicking by my stomach. While I was sleeping, I remember thinking, "that's not what Lizzy's kicks usually feel like!" Then I realized that I had rolled over onto the cat, and she was kicking me and trying desperately to get my big belly off her. Sorry Bones!

-My hair is a big frizzy mess. I am really tempted just to toss it in a pony-tail for the next 3 months.

-I HATE the taste and consistency of plain, organic yogurt, but I've been eating it like it's going out of style to try and ward off any nasty side-effects of the antibiotics that I'm on (and thankfully, I'm feeling much better). Blech! I mixed the most recent batch with applesauce to try to make it taste a little better, but no dice.

-I'm beginning to get a linea negra. But here's the funny part--I had surgery a couple of years ago to remove my appendix, and they went in lapriscopically right above my belly button. Consequently, I have a small scar right above my belly button. The linea negra goes from my ribs, down to the scar in a nice straight line, then the scar makes it jutt over about an inch, making it go completely around my belly button. It's just funny that the lines totally don't line up at all.

Monday Snippets

-I knitted my first baby bootie last night. It was also the first thing I've really knitted following a pattern, and it wasn't straight! AND, it only took about an hour to make! If you knit, check out the pattern at Ooo Baby Knits.

- I cannot even begin to tell you how thankful I am to have today off as a paid holiday! I'm vacillating between whether I want to just sit around all day, or clean the house from top to bottom. I'm thinking that I'll lounge around all morning, and maybe clean this afternoon.

-The nursery mural is done, and I am beyond excited, and can't wait until I can show you guys the whole thing!

-If you missed the Bacon Jalapeno Popper Dip recipe over the weekend, check it out (it's the next post down). Seriously, I don't even like jalapenos and I can't stop eating it!

-I'm totally stepping outside my comfort zone tonight. I was invited to a birthday party for some of the girls that I go to Bible Study with. I like all the girls, and I'm acquaintances with almost all of them, and they're all very nice to me, but they're also just a very tight-knit group, and sometimes I just feel like I'm on the outside looking in. It's not necessarily anything that THEY do, they've just all known each other for so long, and most of them are also in a young mom's group, that they have a ton of inside jokes, and they already know all about each other...and I can hardly keep their names straight! Anyway, Justin's the more "social" one between us, and sometimes I have a hard time opening up and being outgoing when I don't know anyone that well. But it will be good for me to be a little uncomfortable in this situation, I think. Plus, I'll get some sweet potato fries out of the deal!

-We found a dresser for the nursery. It was Justin's growing up, and actually his dad's before that. It's currently wood, but for some reason, Justin has NO PROBLEM with us paining it! It was his idea, not mine! We're making progress people! Also, Justin mentioned to his mom that I'd love to paint the table that we inherited from them, and almost all of his family said, "Yeah! You should totally do it!" Now, Justin is starting to seem somewhat on board with either painting it, or staining it to match our hutch and painting the kitchen cabinets white. I just have to make sure we do the dresser right so that I can convince him!

Tuesday Snippets

-Thank y'all for your kind words about the nursery--Renee really did a FANTASTIC job with the mural. I'm excited because this is the first time in decorating that I feel like what's in my head is actually translating to what's in the room, and I am so, so, excited about it.

-For the next two days, I have to be at a Sex Abuse/Sexual Assault training all day. Oye. At least I get to come home at night to decompress. I think I'll take my baby blanket with my to knit.

-Have I told you guys about Justin and Chinese food? Essentially, he hates it. I love it. And when there's a blue moon and we actually do go out for Chinese food, Justin orders the same thing every time, and his order cracks me up--Mar Far chicken, hold the Mar Far sauce, with Sweet and Sour sauce on the side instead. I have tried to tell him that his order is the same thing as Sweet and Sour chicken (with the sauce on the side), but he still orders the same thing every time. And I laugh hysterically every time. Anyway, I found a recipe for Sweet and Sour Chicken and made it Sunday night (I doubled the sauce and added way more brown sugar), and he actually liked it!

-Meals for the rest of the week are Taco Puffs, Chicken Picatta, Bean and Rice Bowls, and Homemade Pizza.

-The "n" key on my laptop keyboard is going out. Rut roh!

-Doing photography as a job has always kind of been a pipe dream for me. I'd love to make a living doing it, and I'm considering really trying. I've dabbled with it before in the past, and it hasn't really fallen into my lap, which I know is to be expected any time you're trying to establish a new business. Still, I am terrified that I will fail. Because to me, failing would almost be worse than not trying at all. Because if I hadn't tried, it still exists as a dream that's a possibility in my mind. If I try and fail, I don't even have that!

-I tried to go to Target yesterday to buy some point black knee-high boots. I buy a pair there every two years or so and LOVE THEM far more than when I've actually bought designer brands from Macy's or elsewhere. Sadly, my calves are now too fat for the boots and I cannot zip them up. I need to find another pair somewhere or find another solution, because I seriously wear black pointy knee-high boots about 4 times a week to work during the winter.

Nursery Sneak Peek

Just a little teaser for now, since it isn't done! Renee came over on Saturday to start on the tree mural, and I'm absolutely loving how it's coming together. Hasn't she done a great job?! I can't wait to see what it looks like once all the leaves are added on! At first, I was a little nervous about going with the darker wall color, but I'm loving how it looks with the white, and with all the white in the room, I don't think it will be too dark at all. I can't wait to see everything all together.

I'm not sure what I'm going to do for a rug for this room...I was thinking some sort of fluffy white rug, with a texture like this:

What do you guys think? Do you know the perfect rug that would work in the room?

Other than that, we're still working on layout a little bit. I'm sort of leaning towards putting a dresser/changer in the closet, since there's so little room in the actual room itself. I think that would probably work okay...we wouldn't have to worry about shooting pee all over the clothes like we would if it were a boy!

Book Review and Snippets...

- I read Anthem by Ayn Rand two nights ago. In one night. It was the shortest book I've ever read, and not really in a good way. I mean, I knew it was going to be a short read just based on the size of the paperback itself, but what I didn't realize was that the little bitty paperback was actually the book twice--once, the original story, and then also a version with Ayn Rand's corrections and revisions hand-written in. So, the actual story was only about 100 pages.

I had high hopes for the book, because I LOVE dystopian literature like 1984, A Handmaid's Tale, Cat's Cradle, etc. Plus, this book has over 250 five star reviews on Amazon. It's been touted over and over as a book that every American should read. Unfortunately, I just wasn't that impressed. The concept of individuality being banned by law was an interesting one, but um, Yevgeny Zamiyatin wrote a book called We, long before Ayn Rand wrote Anthem, that's almost exactly the same story. Reading Anthem, it really felt like blatant plagarism of We. Maybe Rand had never actually read We, but the main plot points of the story were just so similar that I had a hard time just reading the book, and not thinking about how similar they were. So, overall, I give the book a thumbs down. There are MUCH better offerings out there when it comes to dystopian literature--don't waste your time!

In terms of Snippets, here's what I've got:

-I was really excited to have a potential photography job from a complete stranger. She's 32 weeks pregnant with twins and her photographer backed out on maternity shots for this weekend. She wanted to know if I was available to do some any time this weekend. I emailed back and told her that I was available any time Sunday. She emailed back and said, "Oh, well I really wanted Saturday, because we're free at about noon, and that's when the light will be best, so I just went ahead and booked somebody else. " Well first of all, if you wanted Saturday, that would have been a good thing to say, not "any time this weekend". And actually, noon is not a good time to shoot at all, but whatever. Little bitter!

-I think my allergies from the smoke have turned into a cold. J has one two, and we're quite a pair.

-Football game tonight! My bro keeps trying to get me to paint my belly for the game. I told him that if they make state, I would...but from their record so far this year, I'm thinking that I'm in the clear!

-Renee is coming over to paint the tree in the nursery this weekend! I'm really excited! The boys are also assembling the crib....things are starting to come together! I still need to play with the layout of the room a little bit and figure out how a dresser/changing table would best fit. I struggle with always wanting to push furniture up against the walls...but I'm wondering if the glider might actually work best a bit away from the wall, more towards the middle of the room.

-The other day, Justin mentioned that our cat Bones always seems lonely, and wondered if we should maybe get another cat to keep her company. Of course, I'd love to get a kitten, but do cats really like to be in packs? I've always thought of cats as individualistic. Plus, what if they hate each other?!

Nursery Progress

Well, the fabrics are officially chosen. The paint is almost up on the walls (I've done pretty much everything except edging the top, and I don't trust myself standing on a chair right now, lol! I also didn't finish the top of one of the walls, because it was hurting me to reach that high now I'm just waiting for J to get home from drywalling to help me finish) Interestingly enough, I didn't end up going with any of the previous paint contenders--none of them were *quite* what I was looking for. The failed attempt at getting Home Depot to lighten one of their shades actually ended up working to my advantage, because gave me the opportunity to choose the fabrics first, and then get paint that went with those fabrics.

You'll have to forgive the camera phone pictures, but here are the three main fabrics that we'll be using in the nursery--a pink with small floral, a textured white, and a blue stripe. I hope that Elizabeth doesn't really turn out to be a Caleb, because he would have a pretty darn girlie nursery!

My mom also told me that she'd like to make a "crazy quilt". I've blogged about the Crazy Quilt that I inherited, and how sad I am that it's biting the dust. Funny story here--I always thought my grandmother made the quilt because my mom would talk about the fact that it was grandma's quilt. In actuality, it was HER grandmother's quilt. All these years, I was so sentimentally attached to something that wasn't even made by the person I thought made it! Anyway, I still love the quilt, and I am THRILLED that my mom is making me a new one for the baby, and it was so fun picking out some crazy and unique fabrics to go with it:

Next, we were off to the paint store, where we settled on Ace's "Forgotten Secret" color:

Although I'm not sure you can tell here, the paint color is actually just a half-shade darker than the color of the turquoise striped fabric. I tried to take a picture of the paint up on the walls, but so far it was photographing as a robin's egg blue, when really, in person, it's pretty true to the above color (don't you HATE that!?). So you'll just have to trust me on that, and that a room so "blue" can actually be a cute as heck girl's room!

Next up: Laminate floors and wall mural!

I Need Nursery Help (Again)

Public Service Announcement: For those of you not interested in baby stuff, I appologize. I've tried to keep this from completely turning into a "baby blog" by limiting myself to one or so baby posts per week, but this week I'm just going over. I want input from others! Hey, at least I posted a non-baby related item today too!

Okay, so for those of you just joining the game, go here to see our nursery decorating game plan.

So, we did order the un-upholstered glider from that previous blog post. I had been looking around for another slipcover, since the ones meant to go with the chair had been out of stock for about 6 months, but I was having a hard time finding anything that would fit properly without tons of adjusting. And the chair DEFINITELY needs a slipcover. I was hoping that I could get away with just the muslin, but I can't.

I logged on this morning, and just happened to check to see if the slipcovers were in stock. They were! But only in pink:

I originally wanted the light brown/beige color, but that one isn't in stock. I went ahead and ordered the pink one, figuring that any slipcover is better than no slipcover, and that if beige comes in stock, I'd return the pink and go with the beige.

But now I'm having second thoughts about even looking for the beige. Maybe the pink would be a nice way to bring some "girl" into the otherwise turquoise and white room. I was planning to bring in some small pink accents in terms of sheets and accessories anyway. Nothing else in the room would be beige, so maybe a beige slipcover would look odd anyway. But let's be honest, having a pink piece of furniture kind of scares my non-girly-girl self.

I have had suggestions that if I don't like the pink slipcover, that I could bleach it white, which would match the rest of the room, but isn't a color option even if they were ALL in stock. Bleaching might be an option, but (a) I think it might be microfiber and (b) the idea of bleaching it scares me. What if I shell out $60 to then have a non0usable slip cover?!

So. Should I stick with pink? Keep looking for beige? Or try to bleach it to white?

More Colors added--Vote!

I added three more color options for the room--the top two have a little bit of a green undertone in real life, but otherwise they're all pretty much true-to-shade. So, which do you think is the perfect aqua/turquoise for the nursery?!

Remember, a description of what we're going for is below!

Decorating the Nursery...

So, I'm finally starting to pull together what I want our nursery to look like. First of all, regardless of whether we're having a girl or boy, I want to do turquoise/aqua walls. It's my absolute favorite color, and I've always wanted to do a turquoise or aqua room--and I figure that I can make it either girl or boy appropriate with the right accessories. We also plan to do a tree mural (with the tree being a white silhouette of a tree) on the wall you'll see below along with the crib (which will also be white) I got a couple of Behr paint samples today, and whipped up some color swatches on the wall. I think I'm slightly favoring the middle color, though it isn't exactly what I had in mind...I can't seem to FIND what's in my head. The middle color seems almost too neon, and the right color seems almost too dull to me. Justin likes the right-most color the best. What do you think?

(L to R: Behr Mermaid Treasure, Gem Turquoise, and Embellished Blue)

As far as the tree murals go, these are the type of tree that I can get Justin to agree to--he likes the wind-blown look. The only trick is that we'd be working with a much smaller wall than the two in the picture, so I'm just not quite sure how that would work. We'd definitely have to scale it down a bit. Both of these trees are from Dali Decals, but we would need to paint something similar, because a decal won't work with the texture on our walls.

Our flooring will be the leftover Costco laminate that we installed in the rest of the house (assuming they still have it in stock and we can get two more boxes), which looks like this:

So, in order to balance out the dark floors and bold walls, pretty much all of our other furniture would be white or white with tan accents. I've made my first official baby/nursery purchase today (I have been really superstitious about buying any baby things...part of me is convinced that the second I do, something will go horribly wrong) in the form of a glider for $169. Talk about a steal! It's from Wal-Mart, and it's actually un-upholstered...I debated buying it because the slipcovers that accompany it have been discontinued. But it's a pretty standard size chair...I'm sure I can find a slipcover somewhere! Any suggestions you guys? I didn't get the ottoman, but may purchase it eventually. We'll see.

As far as bedding and linens go, I'm really excited that my mom is going to make the fitted sheets and bed skirt for the crib for us! I'm not stressing too much about having a quilt, because I've heard most people don't end up using the quilt that came with the sheet set anyway. And I'm not doing a bumper, because those are now no-nos due to the suffocation concern and the decreased air-flow with them. If it's a girl, I'm thinking I may go with a white fabric with small light pink flowers. If it's a boy, I'm thinking chocolate brown polka-dots.

And yeah...that's all I have in mind so far! Any suggestions or tips?