Baby's Room: It's coming together.

*disclosure* I haven't figure out how to add a "click thru for more!" link. So, you're just going to have to read all the way thru. :D

Okay, well. I might have embellished a *little* bit. Today we were PLANNING on painting. We went to Home Depot, got the paint, cleared out the room, and Trevor taped off the room. But, just as we were about to get brushes and rollers out of the plastic, Trevor got called into work.

I mean, work is good, especially with me having faux-swine flu all week. Any, he normally works Saturdays, so meh. We'll paint tomorrow morning and let it dry the rest of the day after he leaves.

We are sticking with purple, as I talked about here and here. Except, instead of keeping the cream on the bottom, we're going to do the whole wall in purple, and do a wide white stripe across the middle of the room. Somewhat like this:


But reversed, obviously, and with purple not green. C'mon, you're imaginative people, right?

We've also purchased (and are anxiously awaiting) our crib and bassinet. They're different than what we were originally considering, but after getting the rocking chair and dresser/changer for free, we changed our plan a bit, and are just as happy about it :)

Crib:


Baby Mod - Roxanne

Bassinet:

Angel Line Gliding Cradle and LoveSeat (in white, not the wood tone)

Dresser and rocking chair (and camera hog AllieDog running in for the shot):

The dresser is a handmedown from my good friend. We're going to change the knobs into some brushed aluminum square ones like these:


The rocking chair you've seen before, after I recovered it in that Joel Dewberry fabric. I admit, I did it in the blue when I was hoping that it was a boy... now with our colors the light purple and hot pink, we're going to recover it again. I only need a little bit, so maybe some fancy stuff from Etsy?



Oh, and we've figured out our "theme". I put it in quotations, because it's just a super lose theme. It's "air and sky". Sorta. Hah. Like, we're incorporating it more in the decorative details than in her bedding and stuffed animals. And we're obviously not painting a huge blue sky mural on the wall or anything! Some items we want to use:


Papillon Butterfly Wall Art


Hip in a Hurry - 13" Clouds


18" Custom Name Decal


Sweet Dreams Letterpress Poster

Inspiration: Hanging quilt

Oh yes, I'm going to do two posts in one day. That's my little gift to all 3 of my followers who have been patiently waiting for a new post (or, who just forgot about me in my personal chaos.)

I was reading thru Prudent Advice for my Baby Daughter today, after stumbling on the sister blog, Prudent Baby. (Like the plug, ladies?) In between #202 and #201, I found this picture:



I like the idea of scattered colorful letters appliqued on white, with a little love note to replace the emo sentiment on the right. Something like "I love you" or "You are my sunshine" or "mommy's scared to death, but she's going to do her damnedest to raise you right."

I've been wanting a hanging quilt for her room, and this one brings in the alphabet aspect I wanted, along with the typography print I've been looking for. I think it's perfect. AND, I really don't have to do any QUILTING, persay. No patchwork, just appliquing the letters on, but if I sew thru the quilt sandwich, it'll hold together.

Yes. Pretty much feeling like a genius right now.

Bassinet Bitterness

So, I've got a modern/contemporary style, right? Clean lines, IKEA fan... I mean, hello, when we first found out we were having a girl, I automatically put a kibosh on light pink frilly crap. Bassinets and all their accouterment usually fall into this category. However, we do need one for a few reasons:

A - I have a very cuddly fat cat, and having the baby 20ft away in her own crib, I'd be worried that Boner would be in there with her before she's ready.

B - It's very chilly in our 1934 rental during the winter, and rather than leave a baby in her own room with a space heater, we can just heat our bedroom for the 3 of us. (okay, the 5 of us when you consider the dog and the previously mentioned fat cat.)

Luckily, we found a PERFECT one at Babies R Us, and promptly put it on our registry. 

It's from Kidsline, part of the Jungle Pop collection. It like the clean lines, the lack of frill, and the neutrality of it. We are planning on another baby eventually, and this stuff isn't cheap! Okay great, perfect, and it goes with our modern crib, scan the item, walk away.

Yeah. All peachy keen until we get an email from Babies, saying it's been discontinued. Angry! Our local one doesn't have it in store (I have a feeling the father that bought the floor model of our Amy Coe crib the first time we were there also bought this from under our noses.) There are about 20 in the Bay Area, even if Modesto is REALLY Central Valley.

So what's a girl to do? There is seriously NOTHING comparable in price and design on the market. Whatsoever. I've looked for hours on end. If I had an extra grand lying around, I might buy the Offi Nest:

But seriously, if I had a grand lying around I would, you know, pay my rent?

So the search continues. It's not like we have a baby due in 49 days or anything. 

Busy Bee

I swear I'm about to explode! I have so so so much to do in the next two days, then it's the baby shower, and on Sunday I can breathe!! My house is clean, at least.

Hah. I know I'm lying to myself. There's no time to breathe with the baby due in 7 wks. But at least after the shower I can start working on Delaney's room. I've decided on going on Mat Leave 2wks before she's due, which is like December 4th ish...even that long of a time is freaking me out, but better safe than sorry! I have this weird feeling she's going to come early, since the whole pregnancy has been so freaking easy so far.

Now I should get of this poor, neglected blog, and get to the graphic design work I have to do tonight...so much.

Nesting panic.

Well, it's started.

We have 9 weeks left to go, and I feel 100% unprepared. Hah, new mom much?

I'm not quite at the "down on the floor with a toothbrush" panic, and I think that's simply only because I refuse to clean around clutter. So, this week I've really tackled the projects I've been procrastinating: Delaney's closer (formerly electronic chaos), the office (former post-move storage/staging area) and the garage (former dark dungeon of doom.)

Most of these projects aren't picture worthy, because it's mostly just clearing out a messy space into a blank one. There's been little to no actually "decorating" happening, just doing all the ground work. Money has been really really stinkin' tight around here, and I know Delaney will love us more with a roof over her head, than a 100% perfectly decorated home. (I mean, baby eyesight SUCKS right out of the gate, she won't be able to tell for a couple weeks).

While I've been bettering our home by cleaning and organizing, nothing's been very visually or creatively stimulating. In fact, this week two of my picture frames broke :( . So, I took some time this afternoon to make a super simple baby blanket out of some of the fabric I got from FreeCycle this week. It's blue flannel on one side, and a blue tiny floral on the other, so I added an applique pink heart in the corner. Too bad my sewing machine kept acting up, or my stitched border would have been better. But, it's adorable, and satisfied my creativity for the next couple days.

Completely MIA

Oh my jeez, am I the worst person ever? The last two weeks have been CRAZY! I haven't been blogging about my home-improvements, because I've barely had time to do the dishes. Like, I'm out of clean forks and spoons right now. These couple minutes I'm writing this apology blog is my procrastination in action - there's SO much to do around the house, and getting started is the hardest part.

Monday was my birthday! 22 years old, and 7mo pregnant - where does the time go? My amazing boyfriend schemed the two weeks before hand, and on Friday he whisked me off for a whirlwind trip to NYC. He got both our moms involved, and even my grandma, to help out with the celebrations. Such a good boy :)

That night we caught a redeye (courtesy of Jet Blue flight benefits, of course) to JFK. Landed at 5:30am, navigated the subway bleary-eyed, and got to our hotel (The Wyndham Chelsea West, appropriately) at 7am. I crashed for 2 hrs while Trevor planned out our day.



Started in line for Broadway tickets, and ended up buying West Side Story tixs from a scalper (if we had gone to Mary Poppins, we might have caught a glimpse of Brad and Maddox!). Then we went to Ground Zero, walked thru the Memorial Preview Site, and watched some street vendors get busted by a NYPD officer wearing a Fresno State sweatshirt. After a breakfast of Dunkin' Donuts, we went to the Empire State building and did the typical touristy things. The lines were short, and the day was clear - what more could we ask?



Then, we were determined to find Tom Collichio's 'WichCraft, and after walking about 20 blocks, finding two closed for the weekend, we finally ended up at 30 Rock. We were too late for a tour of NBC Studios, but we found an open 'WichCraft, which was simply amazing. I decided I deserved a DietCoke!



Then, we walked around Times Square for an hour, and Trevor noticed I was fading fast - all our trips are usually this fast-paced, I just haven't done one since I've been pregnant! After another nap for him, and another 1/3 of the new Dan Brown book for me, we went down to Broadway.



West Side Story was AMAZING - Trev knew the story line, but had never seen the movie, let alone a play. Our seats were pretty decent, the cast was amazing, and when we left the theatre, it was raining. What's more romantic than wet city streets in Times Square?



The next day we slept in, went to lunch with a local friend, and found Yogurt Land in Greenwich Village. It was so nice to be part of a local's area for a few minutes, after the tourist over-load from the day before. Next time we come to the city, we need to stay there - there's enough food options to eat somewhere different 4x a day, for a month!

Then Monday it was back to work - and we've been busy recently (thank god!). Today is my first moment really to look around and say "yeaahhh my house is a mess." My sister is coming over for dinner tomorrow, and while she never judges, I just like to look like I have all my crap together. I'm also 100% overwhelmed with the lack of storage solutions and the amount of baby stuff about to infiltrate this tiny house. This weekend I need to purge, clean, and plan - the baby shower is in 3 wks, and we need to have everything set up to just put everything away!

I guess I've wasted enough time here for today - I picked up an incredible amount of sewing supplies (thread, notions, fabric, patterns, etc etc etc) via FreeCycle, so I'm sure I'll be back soon.