We're Switching Rooms!

Sooo.... just this week I completely finished the nursery!!!  All that is left to be done is setting up the new crib.  That's all!!!  Newborn clothes are washed and put away, closet has been reorganized to fit clothes for 2 babies, and all of the burp cloths, bibs, and other necessities are neatly organized and in place.

I also had the glider rocker, all the toys, bookshelves, everything moved into the playroom.  I was getting it set up and had started looking at decorating and layout ideas.  It was looking cute.

But......I am me.  And I like to reorganize and reconfigure things all the time.  It's what I do.

Ask my husband.

So.....at 29 weeks pregnant (tomorrow), we are redoing all of it.  Hahahaha.

Poor hubby.

While both the nursery and the playroom have the same amount of square feet, the current playroom just makes more sense as a nursery.  Let me explain why.  Yes, I listed reasons because this is what I had to do to convince my husband to switch the rooms. :) 

Why the Current Playroom Would Be Better Suited as a Nursery

1. There are 3 useable corners in the playroom as opposed to the 2 useable corners in the nursery.  In the current playroom, the closet and the door to the hallway are sharing a corner.  So there is more useable wall space in the rest of the room.  In the nursery, the closet is in one corner of the room, and the door to the hallway is in another corner.  So in the current nursery, there is less continuous wall space than in the playroom.  In other words, there is very little wall space for 2 cribs without blocking a window or having the cribs in an "L" shape right up against each other.  I don't want them in an "L" shape, because I don't want August messing with Baby in the middle of the night. :)

2. The location of the current nursery in relation to the front porch.  The current nursery has a window that looks out onto the front porch.  This has always worried me ever since August was a newborn.  If someone were going to break in, they would likely go through a window...an easy to get to window like the one on the front porch.....or at least that's what happens in my mommy mind.  I am constantly waking up in the night thinking I hear someone in there on the baby monitor.  The window of the current playroom is well off the ground and doesn't share the front porch.  Also, once the boys are a little older, I don't want going out the window at night to be any sort of temptation. :)

3. Water pipes.  The water pipes run through the walls of the current nursery.  Anytime I run the washer, August always at least stirs if he doesn't wake up completely.  The water running is very loud in there.  So I usually limit laundry to the times he is awake, which obviously is not very convenient.  You would have thought he would have gotten used to the water by now, but the older he got, the more it woke him up.

4. Location of the current nursery in relation to the living room/front door.  The nursery is currently in the room closest to the entry way/living room.  This means anytime we have people over or the door bell rings, it wakes August up.  The current playroom is further away from the front of the house, so there will be less noise back there so they will sleep better.

Those are my reasons, and I'm sticking to them. :)

I have already completely switched the contents of both closets!  Once Adam gave me the go ahead, I was a woman on a mission.  If it weren't for August being in bed, I would be in there right now switching the furniture....but then I would probably go into labor, so maybe that's a bad idea. 



Previous playroom (New nursery) Closet BEFORE....yep, this closet is our vice.  It's the only hoarding place I have allowed in the house.  It contains a few craft items, high school/college memorabilia, lots of Marine uniforms and gear, back packs and purses, and a few special occasion dresses that I am hoping and praying to fit into again.



Previous playroom (New nursery) Closet AFTER......Baby stuff!!!!  Ignore the crooked hanging shelf.  Will be fixed soon.

Here is what the (ex) playroom looks like after all the junk was cleaned out and we moved in the glider rocker, book shelf and toys.  The toys are still in laundry baskets waiting to be put away.  If you want to see where we started with this room (aka- if you want to see my junky room), click HERE.

 

 

The (ex) nursery looks the same as it always has except there is a blank spot next to the window where the glider rocker used to be. 


So that's a little update for you!  We have plans tomorrow night, so we will be switching all of the furniture between the rooms Friday night, if all goes as planned.  I'm sooooo excited!!!! :)  Thank you, Adam!!!  LOOOOOVE YOOOOU! :)

August's 1st Valentine's Day

Well, I'm only about a week late writing about our Valentine's Day.  I really wanted to document it for memory though.  It's funny how Valentine's Day completely changes once you are married with kids, but I think it really changes for the better. 

When I woke up and came into the kitchen, I was greeted by a dozen pink roses, 2 packages of chocolate, and the sweetest card.  I love that Adam writes his own messages in cards.   I was a little surprised to see all of this, especially since we had decided we weren't going to spend any money on Valentine's gifts, but I know Adam couldn't stand the thought of ignoring Valentine's Day.  I didn't fuss at him for spending the money, I am just thankful that he cares that much.  He even put the roses in a vase!  That goes above and beyond in my book. :)

Excuse the poor quality of my pictures lately.  My old phone (that I had replaced about 3 or 4 times) crashed again.  It had an 8.0 megapixel camera....and the "equivalent phone" that they sent me as a replacement has a 2.0 megapixel camera.  Ummm.....not the same thing.

I had planned for August and I to make Adam something homemade, so we stuck to the plan.  I wanted August to make Adam a homemade card, and I would make him homemade Somoas, since that's his favorite cookie, but I ran out of time on the cookies.  I can share my chocolate. :)  I decided to let August paint Adam a card.  We also made one for my mom and dad, Adam's dad, my Nannie, Grandmommy, and Aunt Frances.  Everyone we made a card for, except for Adam and my parents, are widowed, so we thought it would help to brighten their day to receive a Valentine.  Here is August's first finger painting experience!

He started out with a paint brush, but I had to take that away since he kept trying to put it in his mouth.  The crayons are from a failed attempt at coloring.  He couldn't bear down hard enough for it to really show up.

He decided this is pretty fun!......

 

.....and then decided it's not actually as much fun as he thought.

After this, we both got in the bathtub where he screamed and held onto me and refused to touch the water.  We tried a couple nights a few weeks ago to give him a bath in the "big boy bathtub."  He kept crawling around and sticking his face underwater.  Needless to say he is now traumatized from the water and has discovered that he is not invincible.  So we are still bathing him in the infant tub in the bath tub.  I thought he would be fine since I was in the bath with him, but he HATED it.  Don't worry, there are no pictures of this. :)

We spent the afternoon delivering the Valentines and made it home in time for August to have his afternoon nap.  He didn't take a morning nap as much as I tried.  Here are some pictures of how the Valentines turned out!

 

I took the paper he had painted on and cut hearts out of it.  I had originally planned for him to make each of them a whole picture and I would glue it to the purple paper, but August didn't last that long.  So this was Plan B. :)

 

Here is Daddy's card!

 

 

Everyone signed it of course...including the dogs.  They always sign every card. :)

That evening after Adam got home, we decided to go out to our favorite local Mexican place.  Nothing says Valentine's Day like Mexican!  Haha.  We let Baby #2 pick, so that was "her" choice. :)  (I really think it's a girl.)  We had a great time with August in tow.  He was content most of the time, even though we didn't head out to dinner until about 7:45.  (His bedtime is 7:30).  They had t.v's so that kept him distracted most of the time. 

It was a great Valentine's Day for sure.  I wish I had a picture of us out to eat or something, but here is the picture we had made the night before at the church Valentine's dinner.  Thanks for reading! :)

Kitchen Chalkboard

Since having August, I have spent a lot of time at home.  This time at home has me coming up with more projects that I want to do.  Of course, I pretty much have no time to do any of them, but every once in a while, I find myself with an hour here and there to spare.  I have learned to take advantage of these short bursts of time to get things done (like writing a quick blog post!).  Before August, I would spend hours on a project until it was finished.  I have learned that projects will eventually still get done if I keep chipping away at them a little at a time.  

I have wanted to have a chalkboard of some kind in my kitchen for a while.  I figured it would be a good place to jot down reminders, a weekly menu plan, prayer requests, etc.  So one Saturday while Adam was mowing the yard, I decided I would tackle it.  There is a place in my kitchen that I thought would be perfect for a chalkboard wall.  When you first walk into the kitchen from the living room, directly to your left is the end of the cabinet section that holds the fridge.  

Ignore my messy kitchen counters.  I had some leftover frog tape from when we painted the countertops, so I got to taping. 

Then I just started painting.  I started out using a semi-smooth paint roller, and the finish was bumpy, so I switched to a smooth paint roller for the last 2 coats.  I would have started with a smooth roller, but semi smooth was what I had on hand.  Don't use that one.  This is the paint I used.  I got it at Ace Hardware.  

It actually took me a few days to complete just because of our busy schedule.  I did 3 coats.  Each coat had plenty of time to dry before the next since I didn't complete this project in one day, so if you are doing this project in one day, just give each coat several hours to dry before moving on.  Here is the finished project!  Just in time for our annual 4th of July get-together with our family.

After the 4th, I put the last verse of one of my favorite poems up.  It's a good reminder to take this time to enjoy August and to not be so busy.

Well, I hear a baby waking up from his nap!  Gotta go!  Thanks for reading! :)

Once Upon a Baby...

I am just now getting around to posting baby shower pictures!  Some wonderful ladies from my church threw me a baby shower the day before I turned 35 weeks pregnant.  It was such a cute shower!  I couldn't believe all of the cute decorations they had come up with.  They are very creative ladies.  The decor was vintage inspired, and the theme was books!  A lot of people included a children's book with their gift, and now we have quite the library for our little guy!  I can't wait for Adam to read to him every night.  That was something my dad always did with me, and it was our thing each night.  I always looked forward to it.  I can't wait for Adam to have that with our son.  Here are some pictures....along with the revealing of his name!

The banner hanging in the background is now above baby's crib.  They had a rocking chair (to the left) for me to sit in while I opened gifts.  It was so comfortable!

Food table

Centerpieces

The cupcake toppers were book covers that Summer printed off of her computer.  They were stuck in the top of the cupcakes with toothpicks.  SO cute!

Yes, look at that belly.  At only 35 weeks.  Oh my geez.  The pin I am wearing was made by my friend Susie who helped throw the shower.  It is made out of fabric and matched my outfit!  So cute!

One of the games we played.  You had to come up with the name of the children's book it was describing.  This was so much fun!

This was a cute game.  A spool of string and a pair of scissors were passed around.  Everyone had to cut the string to the length that they thought would fit around my belly.  Whoever got the closest won a prize.

From left to right: Summer, me, my mom, and Susie.  Not pictured: Kimberly!  These ladies did such a wonderful job.  We really enjoyed it!

The scale held blocks with our son's name.....................August Hare!

We chose the name August because we were drawn to "A" names.  We also really like original names.  August is the month we found out we were expecting, so it kind of makes sense too. :)  His full name is August Mitchell Hare.  Mitchell is Adam's middle name, so we are going to pass that down.  We can't wait to meet August tomorrow (if not sooner)!

Nursery Tour

I am finally getting around to posting pictures of the nursery!  I finished it (for the most part) last week over spring break, but I have been busy every night since then.  I would have been busy with church tonight, but my feet and legs are so swollen that I can barely walk.  It feels like my feet might explode when I walk on them.  It's pretty nasty.  They have been swollen off and on for the past few weeks, but they have been really bad for the past 24 hours.  Not sure what's up with that.  I called my doctor's office, and they told me to keep my feet up and drink water.  So, here I sit.  But at least you get to see pictures of the nursery now, right? :)

When I first started planning the nursery, I knew I wanted to do a vintage theme.  I found lots of cute ideas on Pinterest, and started collecting bits and pieces that I wanted to incorporate.  The nursery never really came together until I found some artwork that I LOVED.  It turned the room into a "vintage beach" kind of feel, and I love love love it!  It's so relaxing in there, and I find myself just sitting in there and reading or daydreaming of life with our little baby.  I'm so excited to share it with you!

The lighting in these pictures is not completely accurate.  The walls are actually a gray color, but I took these pictures with my cell phone and adjusted the settings so you would be able to see everything since the light coming in from the window was so bright.  So if you are liking this paint color and want to know what it is, it's actually not this color at all. :)  It's a light gray.  Alright, here we go!

This is the view from the hallway.  All of our bedrooms come off of one hallway.

My nannie purchased this glider rocker and foot stool for us.  It is the only new piece of furniture we have for the whole room.  It is AMAZING.  Seriously, best seat in the whole house.  We love it.  I'm sure I will spend lots of hours here nursing.  The table holds an old style clock from when I was little, and a book I will probably enjoy while nursing.  It's the "What to Expect the First Year" book (from the What to Expect When Expecting people).  It was a gift from Adam after we found out we were expecting. :)  The quilt was made by a dear friend (Susie!).  It has gray fabric with vintage looking flags on this side and a patchwork of different vintage looking fabrics on the other side.  I love it!!!  It will be a great background for all of the cute baby pictures. :)

 

This is the art that is hanging above the rocker.  My mom got it for us at Homegoods.  I believe it was about $24.99.  She got it recently, so they still have them if you are interested.  They also have one that says "peace."  It would be cute for a Christmas decoration if nothing else.

This is the dresser that we repainted, found HERE.  We also changed out the hardware.  It was my childhood dresser.  The basket came from a local shop in town, and I spray painted it oil rubbed bronze.  It was blue.  The changing pad and neutral cover are from Target. 

The artwork (which I am in LOVE with) is from Homegoods. It really set the tone for the whole nursery. If you can find some artwork that you really like, it is really easy to base the rest of the room around it. Once I found these pictures, I finished everything else within a week or so.

The wire basket holds diaper supplies.  I have pictured this from the beginning.  This basket actually has a memory to it because I was with my mother in law when I got it.  It was one of the last things we did together.  I drove her in my car for the first time that night.....and accidentally ran 2 red lights.  She never knew I was such a rebel. :) I was very newly pregnant then (I had known for 1 day), and I hadn't told anyone besides Adam yet. 

This crib is from one of Adam's cousins (thanks Maggie!).  It was originally a wood tone, and we painted it the same color white as the dresser.  It's a very solid crib.  I bought the crib skirt for $3.00 from a consignment sale when I was only a few weeks pregnant.  It is brown striped, so I knew it would work for a boy or a girl.  The crib sheet was a baby shower gift from our Target registry.  For now I am not using a bumper.  I haven't found any that I like, and they say that bumpers are a smothering hazard.  They really don't need a bumper until they are strong enough to hurt their head on the crib bars.

I got this wooden paddle from the same local shop that I got the wire basket from.  It used to be hanging in our kitchen, but I always knew it would look cute in a nursery.  The banner hanging from it is made out of the same fabric as the quilt on the back of the glider rocker.  It was a decoration also made by Susie that was hanging at my baby shower.  I love all of the different patterns.  The fabric looks very vintage.

These cutsie things will be removed once the baby is in the crib, but for now they just look so cute!  The pillow is from Target, and it was a wedding registry gift a couple years ago.  I recently bought the elephant at Homegoods.  It will be the baby's first stuffed animal. :)  Adam affectionately named him "Olliephant", so we will call him "Ollie" for short. :)

This bookshelf is a work in progress.  We got a TON of children's books at our baby shower.  (It was vintage book themed.)  I LOVE children's books!  Everything else is just little knick-knacks that will eventually have to find a new home when he starts collecting toys and things.  The bottom shelf and the baskets in the floor next to it have baby shower gifts that I haven't put away yet.  To give you some perspective, the door to the hallway is to the left, and the dresser is directly across from the bookshelf.  The crib is to the left of where I am standing.

This little corner will probably evolve as time goes on.  Right now it holds a chair (1 of 2) that came from my parents' house.  I have been meaning to get it recovered, but haven't gotten around to it.  I figured if I was in there nursing or something, it might be nice to have a place for someone to sit in there with me.  Another friend who helped out with the shower (Summer!) gave me a vintage poster that will probably be framed and hung above this chair.  One day this little corner will probably hold a small wooden table with a couple small wooden chairs for little boy to color and build things on.  (It is already in the garage!)  The door leads to his little closet.  I bought the hooks at Homegoods (goodness, are you seeing a trend here?)  I wanted something to hold his diaper bag and any of his little jackets.  The diaper bag was a registry gift from Target (thanks Becky and Pascal!).

This is his packed out closet!  The top shelf holds all of his diapers and wipes. 

I bought this hanging shelf from......Homegoods.  It was only $12.99 which is a lot cheaper than the ones from Walmart that we have hanging in our closet.  I love this thing.  It gives us way more useable storage, and it just takes a second to hang.  (It has a thick velcro strap at the top to hold it onto the wire shelf.)  I filled the shelf with receiving blankets, crib pads, changing pad covers, crib sheets, bath towels, and blankets.  His little bathtub is sitting just to the left of the shelf.  Simba (Lion King, duh) is currently bathing in it.

These are some of his "church" clothes.  They are newborn to 3 months.  All of his other sizes of clothes are in storage tubs in our garage.  His onesies, sleepers, and pajamas are stored in the drawers of the dresser.  Most of his clothes came from my friend Abby who passed them on from her boys.  So she will get most of the credit for his cute attire! :)

This little girl refused to be left out of the tour.  I had to retake just about every picture because she would get in front of the camera.  Heidi is modeling on the new rug we got from Target.  I had been trying so hard to find a striped rug that I liked (that was cheap), and I finally found this one.  It was only $41.00, and it is a 5x7.  Pretty good if you ask me.

I hope you enjoyed the tour!  We are so excited about the nursery, but we are more excited about the little boy who will be in it!  If you have any questions about where I got anything or how we did something, feel free to ask.  Have a wonderful evening! :)

Our Dresser Was Featured!

Our dresser redo for our son's nursery, found HERE, was featured on the Power of Paint blog!  Check out the feature HERE. 

You might remember when our countertops were also featured on the Power of Paint.  Click HERE for the countertop feature, or go HERE to see how we dabbed in a little countertop paint and transformed our kitchen! 

If you haven't already checked out the Power of Paint blog, you should!  There are lots of great "how to" projects on there all using the power of paint.  Thanks for reading!