Nursery Pictures!!

Tags

A.C. Moore, Baby, Bedding, Changing table, Crib, Decorating, Infant, Interior design, Martha Stewart, Nursery, Pottery Barn

I have been meaning to post Nursery pictures for a while now. Yet, with all the unexpected circumstances, I just didn’t have the chance. However today all that is about to change my friends!! I am happy to say that things are looking brighter here lately.  Husband is on the mend, and we are anxiously waiting for the arrival of baby William, who is due in 8 days!! Could you believe it??

So anyways here is Baby William’s Nursery; everything it all set and ready for him!!

I can’t wait to fill those frames with some baby pictures!I really wanted to keep the room gender neutral. This is why I went for the light mint walls with white and silver accents.  Also, I didn’t want it to be too cliché baby themed.

How cute is this bunny???

My sister purchased this adorable crib mobile from Pottery Barn.  I absolutely love it!!  (I have a thing for sheep…. Baa lol)

I found these vintage German Hummel prints at a garage sale when we first got married. I fell in love with them, and purchased them thinking they would be perfect for a kids room some day. 🙂

I searched and searched for the perfect baskets to fit the changing table… There are baskets sold everywhere, but they were either to small or too big…or not tall enough or deep enough. If I found ones that I liked, there wasn’t four identical!!  Finally I found these as A.C. Moore.  They were a little pricey, but I had to get them… not only were they the perfect size, they matched the color of the nursery chair exactly!

The teddy bear is the first thing my husband and I bought when we found out I was pregnant.

The mirror over the changing table was originally more gold toned.  I painted it with  Martha Stewart’s silver texture paint to make it match with the rest of the silver accents in the room.

The chandelier in this room was one of the first things I purchased. It sort of set the tone for the rest of the decor. I really wanted something sparkly for the baby to stare at, but didn’t want it to be too girly.  I think this one fits the criteria perfectly. It has just enough sparkle, and the clean-lined silver frame and white shade keeps it from being too feminine.

For the bedding, I also went pretty simple. I didn’t go with any particular set, finding them to be too babyish, but rather purchased all the pieces separately.

I really love the tulle bedskirt I found on Amazon, it matches nicely with the white sheer curtains, giving the whole room a very fresh and airy feel.

Check out this lamb night light we received at my shower…

Well…this is it… This nursery was most certainly a labor of love… Hopefully my pictures did it justice.  It’s really hard to take photos in that room.  It’s really bright during the day, and in photos it comes out sort of washed out… But hopefully you can still see what I see, and maybe get some inspiration for your own nursery. I can’t wait to actually be able to use it.

Some final shots…

Envisioning a Nursery…

Tags

Cats, door knobs, Nursery

This weekend my father came by to help us paint the trim and doors in the nursery. I’m pretty excited. The sooner we finish painting it, the sooner we can set up the crib, and other baby things.

We purchased a shag-like white rug for the nursery.  It’s so soft, I could probably fall asleep on it.  Also, I bought a vintage looking chair, and have put up some shelves to display photos and toys.   I often find myself just standing at the doorway of the nursery trying to envision how its going to look like, and wondering how its going to feel when the baby arrives. However for now its still a work in progress… a vision in my head.  This week I hope to install door knobs on all our doors. I’m especially anxious to get that done for the nursery, because right now I have found that our cat Squeaker also loves the new rug in the nursery. I caught him sleeping there peacefully, and on the new chair several times now! As much as I try to close the door to keep him out, without a door knob he simply paws it open. Why is it that cats always find the nicest spots in the house to sleep? It’s like they have a nose for anything that’s new or expensive.  I found him getting comfortable on top of my silk blouse the other day!

Anyways… hopefully I can get some photos of the nursery posted soon. Until then, here’s pictures of my naughty kitty.

I like to put bows on him, but he doesn’t like that very much!!

Photo Books!

Tags

Baby Shower, Blurb, Photo-book, Photographs

Ever since William was born I have been trying to take more pictures.  Before he came along my husband and I were not much for photos. ( There are literally years missing from our life.) It’s not that we had anything against taking pictures, it’s just that we would never think to bring a camera, or if we did remember to bring it, the battery would be dying, or some other lame excuse.  Now I’m making it a point to document our lives a bit more. (This blog serves that purpose also.)

Well now that I’m taking more pictures, I figured it’s also time to display them somehow.  Since our home is still under construction, I don’t really have the option of a photo wall just yet, but in the mean time I have been looking into designing and printing photo books.

Today I was super excited to receive one of my photo books in the mail.  This one is of my baby shower. (This was when I first really decided to take more pictures.)

I compiled this photo book on a site called BLURB.  I read about it on a blog that I follow and decided to try it out.

I think that it came out pretty nice.

Front Cover

Back Cover

For the front and back covers I used photos of our nursery.

I really like the quality of the binding. I purchased my book in hardcover, and I am not disappointed.  The quality of the actual print is good too. Some of my photos didn’t print as sharp as I would like them, however I believe that is because they were very low resolution to begin with. A few of them were even taken with a cell phone camera. (Hey I said I would take more photos I never specified with what! :))  I designed another book with our engagement pictures, which were taken by a professional photographer.  They are higher resolution so I believe they should print better.  From there I will decide if I want to spent the big bucks to make an album with all our wedding photos.

It looks pretty cute displayed on a table too!

Has anyone else tried making photo books? If so, which program did you use, and how did you like it??

-Elza-

3 Month Update

Tags

Baby, Colic, Health, Sleep deprivation

Baby William is growing like a weed! lol  He looks so different from when we brought him home. He is already 13 pounds! He doesn’t feel as fragile anymore, but rather very huggable. 🙂 He is becoming a lot more alert.   He especially loves it when we talk to him,  often responding with a big smile. He stares so intently, trying to make sounds of his own.   He is still colicky at certain times of the day, but he is learning to become distracted from his tummy pains. Sometimes he is even able to keep himself amused by staring at objects. He is particularly fascinated by our bed posts for some reason, often craning his head to look up at them.

He still keeps me very busy, not leaving much room for anything else to get done. During the day he doesn’t sleep very deeply, and wants to be held.  He will fall asleep in my arms, but as soon as I go to put him in his crib he wakes up and starts crying.   During the night he sleeps pretty well though… often getting 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep.  I’m starting to think that maybe its the daylight that keeps him awake.  I noticed that when it was stormy last week, and dark, he slept more during the day.  I think I might have to invest in some light-blocking blinds for the nursery, and see if it will help him sleep longer during the day.

As for myself…  I still crave sleep, but don’t feel as sleep deprived as before. However my body is protesting about the lack of movement. I find myself spending way too much time sitting in the glider trying to put him to sleep. I’m usually more active than this; even when I was pregnant, I kept myself physically active with various projects.  I try to go for a walk with him everyday, but that is not always possible.  Also I’ve tried putting him in the baby carrier to get some stuff done, but he doesn’t like it too much..he squirms, and then starts crying. I have to figure something out soon, because I can feel that this is unhealthy, and it has certainly not helped me drop the baby weight.  Although I must say my arms are getting quite the workout from holding him all the time.

So yeah still trying to figure out life with baby…  Suggestions are welcome!

All Things Baby…

Tags

Baby clothes, Bassinet, Eddie Bauer, Key lime tart, Peter Rabbit, Sciatic nerve

Baby William is due in 5 days! I really hope he comes on his due date. I particularly want this, because my doctor is on call this weekend, and I really don’t want to have to deal with a different doctor if I’m over due. In the mean time, I have been very busy nesting. Mostly I’ve been washing and ironing a lot of baby clothes. These are some of my favorite outfits…

Also.. I assembled the Eddie Bauer bassinet I was given. We put it right beside our bed…  I like the idea of having the baby close by the first month or two…

I haven’t really been going out much lately, other than my doctors appointments.  My sciatic nerve has been acting up, thus it’s a bit painful to move around. However, yesterday, my husband thought I needed to get out of the house a bit so he took me to our nearest book store after my doctor’s appointment.  We did a little reading, and enjoyed some refreshments. I had a key lime tart and it was delicious! Also I was excited to find that some of the kids stuff was 50% off. We purchased a very cute Peter Rabbit puzzle, which came in a lovely decorative box. I still have to buy the actual story book. It’s a classic!

Life, Love, and Faith

Tags

Accident, Faith, Family, Hospital, Love

I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but I have not blogged for a while.  This last week was both emotionally and physically exhausting for me, and blogging just wasn’t a priority.   Last Saturday, my husband had an accident while working on our house.  He fell 15 feet off a ladder, when the scaffolding beneath him buckled.  I accompanied him to the hospital by ambulance both in disbelief and heart-wrenching fear.

To make a long story short, I will say that I thank God that I still have a husband, and that he will recover in time to meet baby William who is due in 4 weeks.  Having fallen 15 feet, he broke both elbows, his nose in 3 places, and has several fractures in his face… not to mention the countless bruises.  The doctors say that he was very lucky; that they have seen a lot worse outcomes with falls from  a lot shorter distances.  All I can say is that it was God’s mercy that kept him from breaking his neck, spine, or having much more serious head injury.

He stayed in the hospital for 3 days, and when he was discharged, we gratefully accepted the offer to stay at my parents for a while, so that he wouldn’t have to climb all our stairs, and I could have some help taking care of him.

Today, we are finally home. Though very sore and awkward with two broken elbows, I can thankfully say that he is healing rather well.

We had so many things planned for that Saturday… We were rushing to complete numerous house projects. I was going to finish decorating the nursery, organize the kitchen, clean the car, buy some more things for the baby.  Yet, this past week has made me really stop and think about the more important things in life.  It has made me stop and contemplate my faith and my love.  The daily rush of life sometimes makes me forget how much I truly love my God and my family. Everything would be absolutely worthless to me if I lost either.

Thus… if I can learn at least one thing from this whole experience, it would be to take the time to appreciate the loved ones, which God has graciously blessed me with, and to show them my love and appreciation daily.

Thank God that I don’t have to say “the lesson was learned too late.”

-Elvira-

Nesting…

Tags

Baseboard, Nursery, Painting, Trim

If anyone has ever painted pre-primed doors, base board, and trim, you probably know how much of a pain it is. This is what I’ve been doing for the last 3 days.  However I’m glad that the nursery is finally all painted, and today my husband has promised me that he would attempt to put together the crib. I’m soo excited! Finally, I can get things moving.

Here is a pic of my wonderful painting… Also you’ll get a sneak peek of the color of our nursery. 🙂

Watch Your Step!!

House Renovation Progress Report

Today I’m excited that our stair balusters and railings have finally been delivered! Yes you heard me right… When we had our hardwood floors put in, we had to take down the stair railings, and I have been living without stair railings for a few months now!  Literally you can walk right off the top floor and land on the 1st floor if you are not careful.  When you are 30 weeks pregnant and feeling a bit clumsy that is NOT a good thing.  So anyways… today our stair parts finally came in, and hopefully we can get them installed soon, so that I don’t have to worry about falling off the second floor when I go to the bathroom at night.

We are installing a cast iron staircase, thus it had to be specially delivered.  Cast iron is heavy!!..  The delivery guy said it was more than 300 lbs! (Poor guy was clonked on the head with our garage door during delivery…we prob have to get that door replaced some day also…)

However, I am happy to say that our upstairs bedroom and bathroom are pretty much finished!! I have been in major decorating mode the last few weeks.  I LOVE decorating.. its one of those passions, that I wish I somehow knew how to make money from.. (either that or Shopping. 🙂) I guess I would describe my style as Mediterranean. I love the contrast between light and dark, and clean lines, however not to the point where it would be considered modern.  I like light and breezy spaces with light walls and fabrics, with small pops of color. Also I’m obsessed with cast iron… When we first got married my mother bought us a kitchen table set with a metal medallion in the center. I’ve been obsessed with the look of Tuscan/ Mediterranean metal ever since.  Just imagine Greece.. somewhere along the coast with those beautiful metal balconies, with white fabric curtains billowing in the breeze… 🙂

Anyways.. here some picture of what I’ve accomplished thus far…

There are still some things that I want to add… The bed spread for example… I’m still looking for something that will add a little more color or texture. I made sure to hang some of our wedding pictures…  It seems a waste to pay so much money to get them done, and then only keep them in an album somewhere. Plus looking at them reminds me of that wonderful day, when my husband and I decided to make a commitment to each other, before friends, family, and God.  That my friends is PRICELESS. 🙂

This is how our bathroom is turning out…  My husband installed the bathroom tile himself, and did a great job.

None of our doors  have door knobs yet… Use the bathroom at your own risk! 🙂

So as you can see, there has been some progress, however for me it can’t be soon enough.  I want the baby to come home to a somewhat finished house.  There is still a lot of work to be done, especially downstairs.  (We want to take some walls down!) Upstairs we are still finishing up the guest bedroom, and I’m setting up the nursery.  The nursery is coming out pretty cute, and I can’t wait to show it to you. However I don’t want to take any pics until we set up the crib, and other baby furniture.

Anyone else out there in the middle of remodeling or setting up your nursery?? I would love to see some pics and get some more ideas!

Product Review: Bashful Bunny 15″ by Jellycat

Tags

Plush Toys, Toys and Games

My husband and I have noticed that now-a-days kids are just overloaded with toys, many of which don’t hold their attention for very long.  We have decided to keep toys at a minimum in our household.  Thus we agreed that we would only buy classic toys, which are long-lasting, high quality, and if possible, educational.   Now that we are setting up the nursery, I was itching for something cute and babyish to decorate the room with.  After a little searching, I came across this Bashful Bunny made by Jellycat.  Jellycat is a London-based toy company, which is distinguished for producing durable, high quality plush toys.  Having read many great reviews I took the leap and ordered this cute bunny.  I must say I was not disappointed when I received it in the mail.  It is indescribably soft and adorable! Its bottom and feet are slightly weighted so it sits quit nicely. However I can’t wait to see our baby boy tote it around by one of its long ears! 🙂

For more information click this link –> Jelly Cat

Also you can check it out on Amazon –> Bashful Bunny

Organizing Baby’s Closet!!

Tags

Baby, Closet

Now that the nursery has finally been painted, I have been working on setting up the Baby’s closet!!  The closet in the nursery is really tiny, thus I wanted to use the space efficiently.  Baby’s have a lot of little items, and they can get messy very quickly, especially if you’re trying to reach for things while holding baby.  Easy access was important for me.  Another little dilemma this closet came with, is that our only access to the attic was for some reason put in the ceiling of this closet.  After looking at various options available at  the local home improvement store, I settled on a customize-able wire track system.  This was a good option for me, because if someone ever needed to climb up into the attic, the shelves  are easily movable. Also, as baby grows, I can adjust the height of the shelves, and eventually make it a closet suitable for a grown up.

The key to making this type of system work is to make sure you measure the width and depth of your closet, and to have a good idea of what you want out of it. (I had to go home and measure after talking to one of the store reps.)

I managed to install the system myself. Yay me! 🙂  The hardest part was installing the two metal strips that go in the back which hold all the shelves.  The two have to be exactly aligned, or when you go to put on the shelves, they will be crooked.  Also since they hold all the load, if they can’t be positioned into a stud, you have to put in anchors for all 12 screws.

In the end I was happy with the result. I added some hooks,  drawer storage bins, and a laundry basket in the corner.  The closet looks nice and organized, and I still have the option of moving things around.  Mission accomplished!!  I still want to add some wicker baskets on the shelves to hold sheets and stuff. Also I’m hoping to get an over the door hanging organizer from my registry.

It seems like it will work exactly how I want it to. However we still don’t have that much stuff, because I haven’t had my baby shower yet.  So far I’ve only been tempted into buying a few clothes, some socks, and a blanket.  It’s just all so cute, sometimes I just can’t resist!!

Check out these newborn slippers!!!  They were so cute I had to get them!!  I know they will prob last like one month, if that.  But hey…who can resist something so adorable!!

My mom says I shouldn’t indulge in the really teeny-weeny stuff, because baby’s grow so fast and he will prob wear it only once.  Thus, most of the clothing I purchased has been 3-6 or 6-9.  I only bought one newborn outfit, since I know I’ll prob get some more at my shower. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only woman out there that’s attracted to all the tiny cutesy stuff. 🙂

 Even my husband brought something home. Check this out. lol! —>