A New Friendship

When I was pregnant, Adam and I happened into a store that had the cutest little random sock monkey for sale. As soon as I saw it, I wanted it to be ours for our new little baby to one day toddle around with. Adam said I was silly and it was time to quit buying so much stuff for our future child.

A few days later, I was surprised with a gift of my beloved sock monkey from my thoughtful husband. Since then, it's remained perched on Adly's bookshelf in her nursery. Lately, one of her favorite things to do has been to look up and "talk" to things around her room. Her favorites are her doggy and alphabet paintings. Yep, until she's old enough to scoop the poop, her only pet doggy will be in the form of a painting.

Anyways, today she pointed out the monkey. So I brought it down and held it in front of her. She was fascinated by it, so I sat her down next to the monkey and began shooting away. What I got was the forming of a new friendship. She's not in daycare so the girls got to have some kind of friend, right??

Nursery

The nursery has been a work in progress for many months. I certainly continued my wedding craziness craftiness and tried to do as many things as possible handmade. The color scheme we decided from early on would be browns and sage green. Those are colors we both like and back then thought we wouldn't know the gender. Since we rent, we weren't going to paint the walls so the color had to come from the room.

Over time though, our color scheme has changed quite a bit, especially since we found out we are having a girl. People keep asking me our color scheme, and the best way I can explain it is sage green, browns, purples, yellow and then a whole lot of other colors. We probably went a little overboard on the colors, but we love it and honestly, will she care? No. As long as she has a boob available to keep her full and loving arms to keep her warm and safe.

Any of you who know me know how I feel about my plans and having things organized. It has been agonizing for me to wait this long in order to have it finished. Of course, we're still 7 weeks out, but now I can breathe easy. We absolutely love how it turned out and cannot wait until she is here to enjoy it.

Dresser:

Once we found out she was a girl, we started looking for a pop of color to add to the room. That's when I saw inspiration at a ridiculously overpriced furniture store. They had this beautiful deep purple dresser that I loved. Thankfully my husband agreed with my vision and that is how I set about refinishing the $30 thrift store find of a dresser in dark purple. Along the way, we realized it was also the same color we had in our wedding. Fate. We purchased the adorable flower drawer pulls from World Market for a low $3.99 a piece. Love.
On top of the dresser is going to go a gasp! new TV. This was a recommendation from a few new parents we know. I know what you're thinking. A TV!?! In a nursery!?! Awful, awful parents! In fact, it's a genius idea. It will be there to entertain Adam and I through middle of the night feedings where our little dear refuses to sleep.


Rug:

Then there is the rug. Ugh. The rug. You all know about that. Not much to say other than, it's a rug. And I painstakingly made it over three months. I do, however, like how it looks in the nursery.



Crib:

The crib came from Adly's grandpa Dan. We got the crib from Target and it is the Graco Lauren style. A steal for the look and high safety ratings of the crib. So far, we've been very happy with it.



Crib Skirt:

The crib skirt was sewn by cousin Emily, who has done so much to help get this room done. (Enjoy it Em, this is the only compliment I'll give you in public). She and I painstakingly cut the fabric, sewed the ruffles and put it all together to cover up all the storage I've needed under the crib.



Changing Table:

The changing table was the start of us adding sage green to the room. Adam and I found it at a little furniture shop near our house and fell in love with it. I think it's such a unique, beautiful piece. It also has a ton of storage for goodies underneath like diapers and wipes.



Rocker/Glider:

For this, like so many other items for our nursery, we found thanks to a recommendation from our new parent friends Laura and Reggie. The rocker was something Adam wanted a big say in. It needed to be big enough for him and comfortable for both of us. Reggie highly recommended theirs and it even reclined. We thank you guys for yet another fabulous recommendation!



Door Hangers:

I purchased these green heart shaped hooks from World Market. That place is awesome. For now, they're being used as her towel holder and adorable hat holders. The hat in the middle is a knitted boob hat. Our friends Dan and Lisa betrothed that beauty onto us. Of course, I can't wait to adorn her beautiful head with it....at least long enough to take pictures to save for blackmail when she's a crazy teenager. 

Monkey:

I fell in love with this sock monkey at an antique store while Adam and I were out browsing one day. For whatever reason, I immediately pictured our future child toddling around, dragging the monkey behind it. Adam shot me down right away, saying it was a waste of money. Sure enough, two days later I came home to find the beloved sock monkey as a gift from the sweetest husband ever.



Picture Frame Wall:

This idea came from many hours of pinning on Pinterest and finding some cute, cheap frames during my adventure at IKEA. There is a map of Michigan and a map of Illinois so Adly always knows where her roots are from. I saw this idea on Martha Stewart where she had actually sewn hearts, but I'm not that talented. There is a picture of her ultrasound (the one where she's totally ready to box whoever woke her up). A wedding picture of us, flowers from the big day, and then empty frames to be filled with her beautiful face once she's here.


A-Z:

Adam painted this beauty for his baby girl. Hearing him talk about this painting brings me to tears nearly every time. He is so excited to be rocking her at night, talking about the letters of the alphabet. I hope she gets some of his artistic talents when it comes to painting. Maybe, just maybe if she's lucky, she'll even be a more organized crafter than her mom.

Side Table:

I spotted this lampshade in Emily's storage closet and immediately confiscated it. I knew it would go along with some of the many colors in the nursery. The hunt for the lamp base was not so easy. After a few botched purchases, I finally headed to good ole World Market, lampshade in hand, to find the perfect base. That's where I found this beautiful little owl. Love it. 

In addition, there's another picture frame waiting to be filled with Adly's face and an iPhone speaker for music to help when it comes time for me to have to sing nursery rhymes. I make stray cats run for cover. Finally, I added drawer pulls to Adam's side table he refuses to give up from his bachelor days. At least its girlified now. The pulls also came from World Market. 

I'm incredibly in love with the way the nursery turned out. It is so very representative of Adam and I and also so unique. There are many personal touches throughout the room to wrap Adly with love every time she enters it.

A huge THANK YOU to all of you who helped to create, purchase, shop for, and donate things to fill  her nursery and make it one of a kind. She is one very lucky and loved lady.

Skirt Stories

A few weeks ago when Emily was over helping me make the spare bedroom turn into a nursery, she asked if I had registered for a crib skirt. "Uhhh...." was my response. I hadn't even thought of that. However, I had already thought of under the crib as the perfect not so hidden storage space, unsightly as it was.

So we set about looking for crib skirts online. And wouldn't you know, all the ones that are adorable are all super expensive. Before she realized what she said, Emily blurted out, "We could just make a crib skirt". Hahaha, I bet now she's eating her words. 

Because, of course, I jumped on it. Another project!?! Something to entertain my weekends!?! Yes, please! The next day I dashed off to Target to purchase two sets of queen sheets in a beautiful butter yellow color to compliment our current nursery colors. We then set about cutting strip after strip of fabric, only making a few mistakes along the way. 

"Ruffling the ruffles"

This Sunday, I headed back to her place to continue on our work. One big mistake was we didn't make the ruffle strips extra long to incorporate the amount fabric needed to make the ruffles. So to correct it, we ended up doubling up the strips on each row.

 My slave. Sew faster! Now!

 Umm....love it.

Who knew? I'm now a sewer. Well, a watcher of someone who sews at least. 

Putting in the final hem. Yessss.

It is the perfect combination of sweet and beautiful, while charmingly not perfect. I think it looks just like Belle's dress from Beauty and the Beast. Speaking of, I cannot wait until I have the excuse to watch all the Disney classics again with my baby girl.

Thanks Em, for yet another fabulous addition to the nursery. 

The Rug of All Rugs!

It has happened.

THE RUG IS FINISHED!!!!

This rug has been the bane of my existence since shortly after it began. I hate it when my husband is right, but he put it best when he said, "Sometimes projects you take on are just a little too much for what you can handle." I also have to mention, the only reason that rug is finished is because of that statement.

Hmph. Don't you tell me I can't finish something!

But whatever the case, it's finished! It is definitely not as big as I had hoped for. I just couldn't take it anymore. I did use up the last of the fabric I had ordered, so nothing went to waste. I can't even imagine how long it actually took me to make, but I know I put in a few 9 hour days. In the end, was it worth it? No. Definitely not. But, is it soft? Yes. Is it cute? Yes. So, it'll do until our wee one starts crawling around and I want to give her more of a plush space to crawl on.

So, here it is. The Rug. In all its finished glory.

Nice and soft.  

Sneak Peek! Fits perfectly under our rocker/glider. 

Advice for future moms/rug enthusiasts: go out and buy one. In the end, I spent roughly around what I would have for a rug this size. Two orders of fabric cost around $80, with the rug mat and binding tape the total came to around $95. Yes, there's the personalized factor, but that can come from other places in the room, if you ask me. If you're crazy enough to attempt it, good luck to you, you crafty maven you!

A Dresser Fit for a Princess

With the weather finally turning spring-like, I had to take advantage of it and make a final push to get the dresser finished for the nursery.

A few weeks back, Emily and I got the drawers painted. Since then, the weather turned back towards winter so that out a kibosh on finishing it off. This weekend, she agreed to come back over and tackle painting the main part of the dresser. The weather outlook was gloriously sunny and warm so it was perfect timing.

We spent the majority of Saturday afternoon priming and painting layer after layer on the side and top of the dresser. Here is the one snapshot I remembered to take as we went:

Primed and ready for layer one of paint. 

The annoying thing about this dresser is that its very well made. Very sturdy. But also very heavy. Therefore I've been banned from lifting the thing in any way, which makes for a very frustrated preggo who can't ever sit still. Once Emily left, I got a call from Adam saying it was supposed to rain that night. 

WHAT!?!?! No. The weather channel said no rain all weekend. Thats why I chose this weekend. Of course, I ran inside to check the weather and sure enough, as usual, the weather channel lied. So very frustrating. 

Thankfully it wasn't coming until the middle of the night so I could wait to drag it to cover until husband came home. So when Adam arrived, we moved the dresser under some tarp our landlord has on the porch. I figured it would do, at best. At the very least it would keep it dry. 

Then I went outside to check it the next morning. Ground was wet...humidity was high. Ohhhh no was all I could think. As I peeked under the tarp, this is what I saw. 

Major sad face. Why, water?!? Whhhyyyyy!?!

This is the top of the dresser. I'm guessing buildup of rain soaked into the paint, as the sides are fine. So I started off this day, bright and early with sandpaper in hand to re-do the top of the dresser.  

Primer times two.

Thankfully, the weather cleared up in the afternoon, so I was able to spend the rest of the day finishing the layers of paint and sealer for the entire dresser. Now the dresser is completely painted and ready to be filled with pretty little outfits for Ms. Adly. Pictures of the finished product to come soon.

The last step I have for the dresser is to add knobs to each drawer. But that will be left for another day when I'm feeling like nesting and running around like crazy all day working on projects.

Here are a list of things this nesting mother-to-be accomplished this weekend:
-Paint Dresser
-Purchase and hang bookshelves in nursery (involving manhandling IKEA)
-Organize picture frames for collage on wall of nursery
-Purchase and hang darkening curtains/curtain rods in the master bedroom
-Rearrange master bedroom
-Cut and iron fabric for crib ruffle skirt

Phew...and with that, I received a stern talking to by my dear husband that I need to start acting like I'm 29 weeks pregnant and take it easy. So now I'm going to kick my feet up and relax. After I get all my other projects done, of course.....

Family Fun

This has been the best spring break ever. I'm so sad to see it come to an end. Having a trip to Phoenix, then Adam's surgery, a few days of nothing but relaxation and then family in town made one week feel like a few weeks. It was so what I needed.

Friday afternoon, my dad, his girlfriend Anita, my sister Caitlin and her boyfriend Pete all blew in to Chicago. We were excited to have them come as they haven't been here since last summer. Adam was excited to have some basketball watching pals all weekend long. As my dad told me Friday morning, "Today is about basketball. Tomorrow can be about you."

Friday night consisted of watching Michigan nearly get slaughtered by Kansas only to come back in overtime. This made the men in my life very happy.

 Auntie Cait feels first baby kicks!

Intensely hoping for a comeback. 

Saturday we went to Shedd's Aquarium. Adam had been holding six tickets for almost a year so we needed to use them. And if you read one of the earlier posts about Shedd's, you know all about Pete's obsession with the aquarium. Therefore, we knew we had to use the tickets while he was here, despite it being a Saturday and Easter weekend.

OMG was it ever people overload. We were all spent after an hour and a half but, we did it!

 Jellies!!

 Bucktooth fish...bucktooth Adam.

 First family trip to Shedd's!

Snuggles from Aunt Caitlin.

After Shedd's we shopped until we dropped. Literally. We all needed a major cat nap before we headed out for pizza at our favorite old stomping ground, Frasca. We got all gussied up and continued with the eating trend of the weekend. We even ran into our friends Pat and Lynae there! So good to see people out and about. I feel as though I've been living under a rock the last few months. 

 Dinner with sissy.

Mom and dad hope the baby likes pizza as much as we do.

Auntie Cait drinking for two...or three. 

To finish off our weekend, we headed out to brunch at the new, "best brunch ever!" spot we've discovered, Tweet. The food was as always tasty, but the bloody mary's were even better. Or so I heard. Here we finally got some good family pics to remember the weekend by. 

Babes and I brunching. 

 I can't believe my belly is this big. Neither can my dad.

 Hugs from sissy. 

With the world's best dad. (His favorite is on the right).

After all this excitement, we just couldn't stop the weekend there. Nope. Pregnant lady had plans to put together the crib grandpa Dan had purchased and she was not going to be stopped. So after I dragged everyone out of the fun bar at Tweet, we went home to begin disassembling our guest bed and assembling the crib.

It only took us putting it together, realizing something was wrong, unbuilding it and rebuilding it three times. Not to shabby, at least in my book. But then, I'm used to doing things incorrectly the first...second...and sometimes third times. Regardless of that, the crib is up! Her nursery is slowly but surely coming together. Won't be long and there will be a pink, snuggly, human being making herself at home in that room. I cannot wait!

 Grandma Anita and I tackling the front of the crib.

 Reading instructions. Believe it or not, mistakes are still made when instructions are read.

 Daddy putting in the last screw!

Baby B's crib, all ready to go.

Always fantastic to have family visit. Time flies by way too fast and before we know it the house is quiet again. This trip was filled with lots of baby talk, first baby kicks, baby furniture, and baby clothes. She sure is one loved little girl.

Happy Easter everyone!