It's Amazing What a Little Paint Will Do!

We loved the nursery we had set up in the apartment... until we finished the nursery in our house!  It is absolutely amazing what a paint of coat can change.

Basically all the same items, but wood floors & lovely walls.  Robins Nest by Benjamin Moore.  We used the Natura no-VOC paint & loved it!  No smell, no headache, and it went on super smooth.

Dream Nursery

When I was pregnant we lived in a tiny two bedroom apartment with two dogs & a cat.  It was fine before I got pregnant, but once we started adding baby items to the mix, it quickly became a cramped space.

Two years later we bought a house & I got to decorate the nursery of my dreams!

 

I know it sounds silly that this is the nursery of my dreams, but it is.  A cute, functional nursery that makes me squeal a little when I look at it.  It's ours!  We've been married for seven and a half years and this is the first time we've been able to paint our home.  It's our home.  Boom.

This is what it looked like when we first moved in.  We were so thankful that the previous owners had painted everything white.  It made painting super easy!

 

Here are a few more looks at the room:

The blank wall above the crib is waiting on a wall decal that we've had for, oh, two years.  It's super cute but we'd been waiting to use it until we knew we weren't moving anytime soon.

We plan to paint the closet door in chalkboard paint.  Sure, it will be messy, but what is life without messes from a two year old?

Paint Color: Robins Nest by Benjamin Moore.  We used the Natura no VOC paint and loved it!  We painted the room with my daughter in there & no headaches or smell or anything.

A peek into the nursery...

Nope, no baby yet.  Not even so much as a hint of a contraction on Friday!  Oh well... I guess this could be a sign that she's stubborn (or always late) like her momma.  Or... it could mean that she's a baby & isn't fully developed yet, therefore not ready to be born.  You know... one of those!

Happy to report that things are going better with our doctor & we feel more comfortable about everything now.  I didn't write much about it on here, but it has been quite a wild ride with our doctor's office.  My #1 piece of advice to those planning to get pregnant, or who are newly pregnant... think about where & how you want to give birth.  Read up on some stuff, educate yourself, and then actually seek out a care provider that thinks along the same lines.  It seems so silly to think about your birth plan before you even get pregnant, but trust me, it will be worth it, as it is very difficult to change providers once you go with one.  Just like everything else in life, begin with the end in mind!

And finally... we are almost done decorating the nursery!  Wahoo!!  My nesting urge hit around the 6 month mark & hasn't been back since, which is unfortunate since we moved into a new apartment & everything I worked to organize before is completely useless & gone now.  But we are making progress in the new place & it sure is a lot easier to make things look nice when they are nice to start with!  Going from all white walls to cream colored walls is just awesome!  It makes everything look better!

Here are some shots of the nursery:

We have truly been so blessed!  I love how everything is coming together!

The mobile was really hard for me to decide on.  I wanted something with black & white & red, as well as music.  Those were the qualities that seemed to really make a mobile effective in encouraging Hazel to learn & respond.  But I couldn't find any mobiles that had the black & white on them that matched... and of course red wouldn't really match either.  So I found this at a consignment shop for $8 or $15 (can't remember).  It plays classical tunes, has the black & white that moves around to pique her interest, and also perfectly matches the colors in her room!  I snatched it up so quick it would make your head spin!

Also, above the crib will be a wall decal with Hazel's name on it.  Some friends got it for us at our baby shower & I can't wait to put it up!

Josh & I made this canvas together.  It's close to being finished.  The lyrics are some of our favorite Cat Stevens lyrics, and the music notes are to remind her to be lively, and the musical rest is to remind her to rest.  The music notes were Josh's idea, and I love it!

Our diaper stash.  On the left are all the smaller cloth diapers, and on the right are the gDiaper refills (we'll use until they run out-- especially helpful for the newborn stage!) and our wetbag.  I figure we'll adjust the flow of things as we go!

And finally, the closet!  I picked up these hanging organizers at Wal-Mart for $7 each.  The green one is a shoe organizer and I think it was more like $5!  They all have side mesh pockets as well- lots of places to store things!  Then the canvas bins are from Ross for $6 each.  I'm still working on the organization in here, but I like the direction it's headed so far.

So that's our nursery to date.  There are a few things still left to add, but I'm pretty pumped about it finally coming together, hanging things on the walls... it's making it all very real!

Thrifty Nursery.

We are likely going to be moving into a new apartment before Hazel is born, but I'd already worked on this nursery, so I'm going to share it anyway!  I know I'm a photographer & all, but cell phone pictures are what you're getting.  :)  We got a lot of really great deals on our larger items, so I wanted to share our finds!

We started with this idea:

And here's what we've got so far.  There's a lot less color in it right now because we don't have all the decorations up, but you get the idea.

Crib, mattress, white dresser: $150 from a consignment shop.  We got the info off of the crib & researched it to make sure it had good reviews & wasn't recalled or anything.  We also got a bedding set with it that's adorable, but just didn't fit in our color scheme, so we're selling it for $20.
Mobile: $15 (or was it $10?) at the same consignment shop.  It plays about 10 different songs & spins around.  I love that it has the black & white swirls as well, since that's what they suggest for mobiles.
Rug: $5 at a different consignment shop
Canvas with lyrics: $60 We bought the canvas at Michaels' for $40 (was 60% off) & the paints & paintbrushes (what I didn't already have) was about $20.  We had the idea & painted it ourselves.  It's not quite done yet, but more on that later.

Guitar Lamp: $30 at Burke's Outlet.  You can't see it in the first picture because it's beaming a bright light, but it's on the white dresser.
Music = Love small canvas: $5 at Burke's Outlet

Dry Erase Wall Dots: $5 for a 2 pack  I run a photography business out of my home, and it takes a lot of space to set everything up!  I quarantined most of it to the closet with some careful organization, but I still needed some space for the printer & such, so I used this little corner, which you can't really see from the door.  The two blue wall dots are removable dry-erase wall decals.  I keep a list of to-do's on one, and other notes about clients on the other.  Super helpful!

Large bookcase: This used to be in our living room with China & books on it.  I love the cubby organization systems and almost bought a cubby shelf just for this room.  But space is an issue in this apartment, so I took the bookshelf that was already in the nursery & moved it to the living room, and brought the large one from the living room into the nursery!  There wasn't enough room for all the books, even after giving many to Goodwill, so I double layered them-- there is another complete row of books behind each row you see!  The bottom right hand cubby of books is all our baby/kids books.

Canvas Bins: $9 each  This was not a cheap purchase, but thankfully, I had enough in Wal-Mart gift cards to more than cover the cost!  I can decorate them if I like, and they hide a lot of junk that I know won't always be organized once the baby is here.  They will also make moving much easier, and even collapse down to a flat square if needed.

Yikes... I never said the nursery was finished!  Here is the closet & changing table/baby armoir (which needs to be refinished & get new knobs).  Cloth diapers are in the baby armoir... for now.

Bassinet: Free!  It's our friend's bassinet.  We knew storage was an issue, but also knew a bassinet would be super helpful that first month or so.  So a friend offered to let us borrow theirs they aren't currently using (& they needed the extra space!).  Works perfectly-- we don't have to waste money on buying one that we'll just turn around & sell, and they don't have to look at it for a few months.  :)

And we've come full circle!  Like I said, the decorations are definitely not all up yet (nor will they be until we move).  A friend bought us a wall decal with Hazel's name on it, too, and I can't wait to decide where to put it in our new place!

Nursery Project

Some people are amazing at nursery decorating, or very creative in home decorating.  I am not one of those people.  Occasionally I can put something together that looks nice, but it's not often.  That's why my house has looked relatively the same over the past 3 years, despite living in 3 different apartments in 3 different states.  When I find something that works, I keep it that way.

But now we're introducing a new member to the family, and this one will need more than a kennel or a litter box.  So I figure that while I'm up at all hours of the night, I might as well have a pretty room to enjoy it in.  Here's a basic idea of things we like that we want to match the room.  I love the colors, I love the lyrics... I love the mix of styles: Ikea, eclectic, new, and old.

This will prove to be our biggest project.  It is a dresser we hope to use as a changing table.  My uncle made it for me for Christmas when I was 6 months old.  There were lots of perks of being the first girl after 3 boys!  But... this thing has seen better days.  It's almost 25 years old, so that's to be expected.  Construction wise, it's dead on-- hinges are great, shelves are sturdy-- the entire thing is built with incredible craftsmanship.

But clearly we're going to need some new knobs!  And a refinish.

I'll give you one guess as to what my little sister's name is.  ................  Angel!  I don't know if I was writing something to her, or if she was claiming it as her own.  :)  Adds character, as I'm sure our little one will add her own artwork when I'm not looking!

The inside.  Basically set up like a mini-armoire!  A bar to hang little dresses, some shelves (I'm thinking for cloth diapers?) and some drawers at the bottom.

It's super hard to read, even in real life, but here's the back, with a note from my uncle written in pencil.

To: Susan
Merry Christmas
1986
From: Uncle Jerry

Did I explain who Uncle Jerry is?  He's my dad's twin brother.  :)  He has a daughter who is expecting her first child very soon, and he made her a crib.  I love seeing family heirlooms begin!

Made By Jerry Pressley

Nov 1986  (and a drawing of a Christmas tree)

Many thanks to my parents who hauled it up here from North Carolina (and for keeping it in the house all those years!).  I'm excited to get some new knobs and get it looking in tip-top shape again!

Half baked!

20 weeks along-- we are halfway there!  Time is starting to fly, but I'm enjoying it.  :)

Still getting nauseous & sick from time to time, but it's less and less.  Also, I'm starting to feel her move around in there!  I wasn't sure it was her at first, but now I know-- and it's so cool!  I can't wait for Josh to feel her, too!

For people that know me, they can tell I have a pregnant belly now.  For those that don't know me, most have no idea I'm pregnant!  This weekend at a party a girl heard me talking and asked when I had the baby.  She was outright shocked to find out that I was 20 weeks!

We also started our registry yesterday.  Whew, what a task!

I thought I'd share a few things we've gotten for our little one.  This is about half of the stuff we have so far (other than furniture).

From top to bottom:
5 onesies for $4 at a consignment store
Polkadot dress- $5 at same store - but c'mon-- so worth it!
Books- some from my mom, some I bought- all from yard sales & consignment.
Duckies for bathtime- present from my grandma.
Panda shirt & 2 pairs matching pants- present from my mom.
Rug- $5.98 at a consignment store.

I've really tried not to go overboard.  We live in a small apartment and want to keep our minimalist theme going as much as possible.  Other than these items, we have a Bumbo, a breast pump, some cloth diapers, a baby book, and a bag of goodies a sweet friend has already gifted us with (adorable clothes, a blanket, and a stuffed animal!  I don't even like stuffed animals, but this one is darn cute!).

In other words, I'm proud of myself!  I haven't gone overboard!

I know everyone says not to buy clothes-- she'll end up with more than she can possibly wear, but you know what?  I avoided buying clothes for nearly every single baby shower that I've ever been to (there are 2 exceptions to this) because I feel like the parents would probably rather buy the cutesy things like clothes.  So I usually buy diapers, wipes, washcloths, mattress pads... the not so exciting stuff.  So this time, it's my kid, and I want to buy her clothes!  But I'm a tightwad, so I really haven't bought much.  :)

And so it begins...

We look like we've done a lot more to our nursery than we actually have.  Truth is, we have done 3 things:

1) Got rid of the bed.

2) Spent 15 minutes at a consignment store & bought a crib, mattress, bedding set, and chest of drawers

3) Put the crib together (okay, Josh went solo on this one) because we had an actual baby we were taking care of that needed to sleep in there!

But hey- it looks like we've done a ton!  Truth is, we're not keeping this bedding set.  It came with the crib.  At first we thought we might keep it, but the more I look at it, the less I want to have a pink & brown room.  I was going for more orange, green, blue, yellow, and a touch of pink--- and this bedding set just isn't going to work.  In fact, we're probably not going to get a traditional bedding set at all.

That's not the point of this post.  The point is the problem we're going to have to deal with in about 5 months!  Check out these shots-- all taken within about 30 seconds of each other.  Pay attention to the activities going on with the animals.  In every picture, there is at least 1 animal underneath the crib, or on his/her way out from under the crib.

Look closely-- it's not just that black blur-- look on the left side of the crib at the little bottom going underneath!

Ahh- the cat bolts from under the crib, dashes out of the room, then comes back to taunt Jigsaw, who is still under the crib!

Yes... it will be quite interesting!  It wouldn't be such a huge problem if Jigsaw fit better under the crib. When he walks underneath it, he bumps up the mattress, and then the entire crib comes off the ground when he gets out from under it.

I don't think crib skirts are for this family!